Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I felt like I wasn't on an island. I met my people, and I felt supported in that framework and the accountability that I had to show up every single week. I had to show up for the calls. If I wanted to get out of it, I had to put into it. And that was a game changer.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Welcome to the agency hour podcast, where we help web design and digital agency owners create abundance for themselves, their teams, and their communities. This week, we're joined by Jen Sakowski, a coach here at agency Mavericks and also the founder and CEO of Rainy Day Designs. Jen is a dynamic speaker and an inspiration to everyone who comes in contact with her. In this episode, we explore Jen's journey as an agency owner, setting goals, overcoming anxiety and overwhelm, knowing your why and nailing down your daily discipline. We also talk about how to train yourself to look at things differently so you can get a different outcome. And we talk about leading a team with transparency and getting everyone on board, even if there is some reluctance and if you've already fallen off your goals, we tell you how to get back on track and make them happen. All that and much more. I'm Johnny Flash. Stay with us.
[00:01:14] Speaker C: Hey, Jen, how's it going?
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Hey, Johnny. Doing well. How are you?
[00:01:18] Speaker C: I'm doing great. It's so great to have you on here. I'm so excited about this. So, hey, since you've been in Mavericks, first as a student and now as a coach, and you've been in the ecosystem for a long time, I thought maybe you could just share a little bit about how it was before mavericks, how it was after you've been through mavericks, and now, obviously, how it is.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Sounds good. Well, thank you for having me back on the podcast. I love being here, and I love working with our agency owners through the Mavericks program.
Man, thinking back before mavericks, that's before children, before team members.
And that's the reference point, right? With kids, it's like, is that before kids? At what age? Well, back then, I stumbled upon Troydine. It was WP elevation. Back then, it was the Blueprint. So anybody who's been around the block knows what I'm talking about. And I knew I needed the framework.
I don't think I was pregnant, but I knew I was growing a family. But then I got pregnant, and I was like, I do not want to be the smartest person in the room. I know that I got to figure this out. And at that time, I was taking on any project. I moved my business 350 miles away from where I started it. I knew no one, I was self taught WordPress, self taught adobe.
I'll take anything. $250 for website. Let's go.
That's where I started and back then, so I went through the program, and I was in and about a year, and that's when the Mavericks rolled out the mastermind part of it. And by that time, it was one or two years in, I forget. And I had implemented the blueprint, so that was helping me, but the structure. So before, I had a few systems in place, but it wasn't concrete and it wasn't consistent. And I was ambitious enough. I had goals then, but they were safe goals. And I went into the Mavericks program, and from that point, there was a shift in me. There was this confidence shift in me. It was really, I can do the work, I could build out the systems.
I felt good about that. But it was the mindset behind the Mavericks program that was the biggest impact for me. Because when I remember going to that first, just. I don't want to say I was scared, because that's not in me to be scared, but I was more reserved. Intimidated or reserved, yeah, let's use the word reserved and didn't feel like I belonged. It was impostor syndrome, for sure. Other agency owners here. Because right before I had stepped into that program, pretty sure I didn't meet the actual criteria that it is now, but I had set a big six figure goal then, and I had set that way back then, and I was planned. I wrote it out every day. I kept pushing that forward, and it took a while. So when I went through that mavericks program, once again, mindset shift, it was about that I belonged in this room.
I felt like I wasn't on an island. I met my people, and I felt supported. And that framework and the accountability that I had to show up every single week, I had to show up for the calls. If I wanted to get out of it, I had to put into it. And that was a game changer. So after a year, I went to the program, and I had some family like, kiddo stuff that I was trying to navigate and raising babies in business, and I started hiring. I took a step back. And when I left the mavericks, I took all of that framework, I took all of that mindset juice, and I implemented it. And I feel like I was consistent over the years. I hit that big six figure goal. I continued to grow and really focus on. Once again, for me, it was mindset. I had to continue to get out of my own way because, like I said, I'm an ambitious person. If I set out to do something, I'm going to do it.
But I think the value that the biggest was, I was having to not necessarily measure up, but there was a little bit of competition, right?
[00:05:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: I met you, and you were, like, three steps ahead of me always.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: But you were like an.
Remember, you're like one of the ogs in, like, kind of the first group to go through. And then I was coming in, and it seemed like everybody else already knew what was going on, and I was just trying to figure it out. But I'd been following Troy for a long time, just like you, but it was like, oh, man, all these different things.
I think there is, like, a good, healthy. I mean, it's a very sharing community, but there is like, oh, man, if someone else can do this, I can do this, or I can do it, like two x or whatever, right? So there is that. For me, who's competitive also, it's like, there is that. And I think it's also just to your credit. I mean, I think raising two small kids, trying to run an agency, do all those things, that's a lot. That's a lot.
Julie works, as you know, in the business with me, and so I know definitely when our kids were small, that takes a lot of time and energy. And when she. I'll never forget, she went on a mission trip. Our youngest was one years old, so we had, like, seven year old, five year old, three year old, one year old.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: She went on a mission trip for.
[00:06:36] Speaker C: Ten days out of the country, and I had, like, the four kids, and I was just like, oh, my goodness, this is harder than anything that I do to take care of them. The energy, the food, like, all the different things, like wake up in the middle of the night, and I think it was good for our marriage, because then it was, like, a little bit more appreciation for all the stuff that she does. So I can only imagine doing all that and then running the business and pushing that forward. It's a lot. So hats off to you on that.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah. I always said I run a full time business on a part time schedule because we were fortunate. We had. While my husband was traveling off and on for his work, I had my in laws helped, so I at least had those two days a week that I was able to dig in. And I am a very structured person anyways, that's why with the mavericks, it's all about processes and systems that fed me. I fell into that, and I embraced it with everything.
Yeah, I agree, and I appreciate that you don't realize it until you're having to do it full time. Kudos to you. You survived a lot.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: I survived, yeah. We did have a few nail polish incidents where I was like, how do I get this off the white tile grout? Like, I don't know what to do. Then I learned there's a thing called nail polish remover. Imagine that.
Fast forward all the way to now. What are your plans for the future? What are your goals? I know you're very driven and stuff, and I know one of the things I wanted to talk to you about, because you just did an amazing job at Mavcon, talking about goal setting and planning and all of that.
What's next?
[00:08:17] Speaker A: What's next? Well, because of those goal planning, I have to tell a quick story to feed into that, because how I came back to it, I mean, I was invited, you asked, and I was humbled by coming back into the Mavericks as a coach. But even before that, that was last year, around springtime, I think, that we talked.
So it was 2023, December of 2022, I had mapped out, and the thing that I brought to Mavcon is just how to set up your goals. Oftentimes, we look at a one to three year mark of where we want to be, and I like to embrace that, this discomfort of going beyond that. Like, who am I going to be in ten years? Because you and I, we both have an affinity for books. And if you ever read, I'm going to name drop ten x. Please get it. Read it if you're listening to this right now. But if you stretch yourself, even if you don't hit that big ten x, that big, scary goal, wherever you land is going to be eons further to where you are right now. And I truly embraced that mindset even before reading that, I embraced that mindset. So I went back and through the mavericks, there's this thing called destination happy place, and it's where you write out, who do you want to be? Well, I like to journal that out even further of, like, I start with my kids. Where are they at? What is my husband doing? Where do I see myself as? What does my day looks like? How I enter the week? And I am very detailed on what feels right, and I don't hold anything back. And it's between me and the paper and the pencil, and I mapped that out. And the cool thing of it was, before I came back to mavericks, I have a love of helping people and building other people up. It just feeds my soul to help coach and love on other people. So I had put down that I wanted to coach, I wanted to do more coaching, and I had some goals written out about that for ten years.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: I promise I wasn't reading your email.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Tap in on something.
And it's just amazing, because when we start to set ourselves up, but then we act like we want to be that person, now it shortens that time frame. I don't know what happens. Y'all know I love Jesus. I don't know what happens with that, but it happens much quicker. And so it's cool because I wrote that down, and then the opportunity came back and I was excited. But coming back, I wanted to put myself through the framework again. Right? So between continuing to build my business and working myself outside out of the business, I want to be a true founder of my company. I have an amazing culture established, amazing team in place. They are wonderful human beings. And so my goal is that they don't need me.
So fast forward, I'm putting myself back through the Mavericks program because obviously, in the last, what, five years or how many ever years that I've been away from it, there has been a lot of developments, and technology has changed. How we go about things, how we sell has changed. So that's part of it right now. Short term, I've been putting myself back through it so I can help speak the language. Long term is, like I said, I want to be doing more of this. I want to be doing more outside of the agency, but loving on my team and helping other people. Love it.
[00:11:40] Speaker C: Love it huge. It's awesome. And I think I appreciate that. It's like you're not just thinking about it with your business, you're thinking about it with your family.
Because I think sometimes we just compartmentalize our life, right? We're just like, oh, I've got all these goals for the business, but I don't have the goals for myself or for my family or for other parts of our life. And I think we all need to be thinking a little bit broader and longer range. And I think what you said about acting like it's now, even if you haven't got there yet, sets you up to get there. Right?
And you're always so inspirational in terms of just taking life by the horns and just wrestling it to the ground, regardless. I just love that.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: I appreciate that.
[00:12:35] Speaker C: Go ahead.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: I was going to say, I truly believe that as agency owners, we forget we're a whole person.
Right. We think that because we're so consumed, and depending on where you're at in your business, journey. You're either taking up every project that you can, trying to figure it out. You know, you got to hire. You're fighting burnout. You're probably more turned into your business than you are at the home front. And that's what I like to challenge people who we work with, agency owners, is because what happens when we have this great business, but we have no love being home or our kids, we don't know them anymore. Or it has to be more than just business. It has to be more than just finances. And so when we put on that, and I would call it the whole agency owner, there are lots of different buckets because we're more than just the business. So as we, especially going into a new year, it's critical to start to break down on not just what you want with b, with the business, but who do you want to show up as a person. Because how we are outside of office, it pours into who we are inside of the office.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: I love it. I think one of the things is that as we think about the agency owners who are inevitably going to be listening to this, I think we all struggle with things.
It could be imposter syndrome, like you mentioned earlier. Could be anxiety. It could be letting go of things and having the team run with them. Right. And just not doing all the things, feeling like we have to do all the things. It could be family drama. It could be so many things. Right.
What would you say to that agency owner that's maybe struggling with something to like, I'm just trying to keep my head above water. I can't really make a goal.
It feels like then I'm just adding more pressure onto myself. More anxious. Right. Or whatever.
How would you encourage them?
[00:14:31] Speaker A: I'd have to start with, why? Why are you doing this? Why did you show up and turn on your computer today? Why did you have that meeting? Why did you start your agency? If you have a strong why, that will help you push through when it's hard.
Our strong why helps us realign when things get rough. Because it's not just I need to make this money. It's because I want to leave a legacy for my family.
I want to retire my husband. I want to pour back into my community. It has to be bigger than financial, just like we had mentioned before. But I would start there, what is your why? And then look at yourself.
Have you taken care of yourself recently? Because I find we, and I'm this person, I'm the one that is the more time that I can push through to this. The more time that I can be in this office, the more I'll get done. That's not the case. That's when we fight burnout. We have to take care of ourself.
We all hear it. You can't pour from an empty cup. I truly believe that. I truly believe that you have to pour in. So what that goodness, it'll spill out your home and your business. So, is it. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you scheduling out your day? Are you building out the routines to help you show up as your best self? And even, like, playing the. There is an exercise I love to do is. So when we do that whole mapping out the ten years and all and who we want to be, well, how do we set ourselves up to be the best version of ourself? I know for me, it comes down to my daily disciplines. It are the things that are my non negotiables. And when stuff gets off and I start to fight burnout and, like right now, there's been some things happening and it's been hard, I go right back to those daily devotions, and I go right back to moving my body, and I go right back to doing my reading and prioritizing sleep and making sure I'm getting enough water. So that's the two main things that I would start with, is know your why and take care of yourself, whatever that may be, in your home life or your world. Just decide that and then make it a non negotiable.
And then find accountability. Right. We often think that because of what we do, literally, we're on a technical island by ourselves with our computers. You have to find your people. You have to have that accountability. So if you don't feel like, if you don't have a team or maybe you're leading and there's just stuff going on that you can't talk to your team about.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Get in the Mavericks program. I'm going to name. Drop that right now. Get your people, because those are the people that are going to be able to pull you out when you're feeling stuck or when you need to have that sounding board. I know over the last years, because I haven't been in this program, I've still been able to connect with you and other ogs to when I just like. I'm about ready to. You want my business?
It gets so hard. Those are the people that you lean on.
I could keep going, but those probably would be top three, no?
[00:17:44] Speaker B: And I think you bring up good points about. I think we underestimate, especially most people are working from home or they're working in the office nearby or whatever. And we underestimate getting out and moving our body and getting exercise, whether even if it's just a walk or whatever. Right. And listening to books or audio or podcasts or things like that.
At least the audience here is listening to it as a podcast. Right. They're here with us. But I think all of those types of things, it's like we underestimate. We think if I could just work a few more hours in the day, that's going to solve everything.
If I stay a little bit longer, if I get a few more things on my to do list done, that's going to solve it. When probably actually the best thing you could do would be turn off the computer, leave the office, go for a walk, have dinner with your family or your friends or whoever, get away from the house and just live a little, and then everything else is going to be a little bit easier. And I say this often, too, it's kind of like planning for a trip, right? You're about to go. My son's leaving for Disney tomorrow with his know group. The school's going there and he gets to go there. He hasn't packed anything yet.
He has to be at the airport, like, so early tomorrow. He hasn't packed anything, but he's going to get it all packed and he's going to be ready to go, even though there's like this much time. Right. And he could have started packing like a week or two ago, but it would have just been so I think. I guess what I'm trying to say is when we're forced into getting stuff done in a limited amount of time, like you working part time as an agency owner and getting it all done, it forces you to just get it done in less time. Prioritize what thing you're going to actually spend the time on forces you to hand stuff off, because if you suddenly had to run your business in 5 hours a week, you would somehow figure out how to pass off the other 40 hours that you've been doing or whatever. Right.
And so I think sometimes we just were our own biggest obstacle. Right. In terms of self sabotage and everything.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Yeah. We have to continue to rewrite our story. Right. We have to continue to train ourselves to look at our circumstances differently if we want a different outcome. So just like what you said about your time frame, we often think we need more time. You don't need more time. You have 24 hours in a day. It's how you prioritize your time, it's how you get things done. And so when I start to do something, I'm like, oh, I'm so busy, I don't have time for that. If I flip it and I say, that's not a priority right now, sometimes that's comfortable, sometimes that's not. So I encourage people, start playing those games with yourself to check yourself. Also going back to things that we can do to help us get out of those funk is to choose to look for the positive.
We end our day in my team with a win. And all of our meetings that we have, we always start with a win. I don't care if your coffee is strong or you didn't throw your MacBook, if that's what would happen today, we are celebrating that win. But when we start to. Because negative to negativity loves company, right? When we start getting over there, then the world's on fire, and it's much harder to dig ourselves out of that hole. So if we can either start a gratitude practice that's part of my daily every morning is write down three things that I'm grateful for and be specific. Because when we start to choose to look for those positive nuggets throughout the day, then they start to come up more frequently, right? So that's where I start to go. I start to play those games with myself on where I'm stuck and where I can get myself out of now.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: I can imagine with the amount of energy that you have and the drive and stuff, and I struggle with this, too. So I'm curious to hear your take on it. But sometimes it's like I can feel like I'm ready to take the next hill. And I start up the hill only to look around and wonder.
I left everyone back way in the distance. And it's like I need to slow down a little bit or cast the vision a little bit more with whatever it is, the goals of the company or what we're trying to do or why we're offering this new service or this or that, right? And it's easy. Like, I know you've been really into go high level lately, right? And so you could just come up and show to the team, like, hey, I just sold this, we're building it, let's go. But that can also be, for some team members, a little jarring. Or they're like, why do we were just kind of getting this other thing down? Why do we have to do this thing? And so talk a little bit about that, because I'm sure I'm not the only one that struggles with it.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Once again, were you here?
Because when I had already processed that we were breaking up with activecampaign and all the 25 different software that we're using, I had already processed that. Come Mavcon and be able to talk to them. Gentlemen, I forget which one I pulled aside, but I said, I just need to word vomit. And I just need you to tell me that it's going to be okay. And then I'm all in. You have a new customer. Her. And so once I went through that, you're right, I was already there. So when I came back, I was on fire.
And hindsight, I would have done it differently. And I'll tell you what I would have done and what we're doing now better. But I did. I rolled back in and I said, we're doing it. And we had talked a little bit about before, but they weren't where I was already committed. So it has been a little bit messy because I'm learning it. Thankfully, my project manager has experience. My developer is amazing and already with me on this. But it's taken us a little time now because once again, new year, my whole plan, my whole theme is relentless is that I have to do things differently when I lead my team. And you're right. When I introduce something, even though I am 100% in and I have all these great ideas and I'm ready to go, and I am thankful that I've surrounded myself with finishers, I cannot lead like that. I'm going to cause them to burn out. So what we've instilled is that jen is going to be way more transparent with the goals for the company. And depending on at what level that they're at, they have more detail. But I started with my operations team because usually they know where I'm trying to go with the company, but not as much as they are now.
So I created that doc. I put in, here's my goals, and I broke it down by department. I then asked each of the team members or each of our departments to come up with their goals and three KPIs that they are going to track this year.
And so I have their buy in and they see the big goals that I'm going after. My ops manager, she point blank said, so what are we doing differently?
And I'm like, this is what we're going to do differently. And I was able to map out, I know once again, I'm challenging you like I challenge Mike. Don't get hung up on the how because I haven't leveled up enough yet to handle that. So I only can take the next step forward and the next step forward. I mapped that out and I mapped out the numbers and what I knew right now, what we needed to do to reach those goals. And then from there, being transparent at the very bottom of the list, says Jen's wish list.
And so if it doesn't go on or a part of any of those goals for the year, then it gets down here and we have to complete something above before we move forward.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: And it's what, not even the end of the first month and there's like five things on it.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: I think that's a great practice that you said because I struggle with that too. We'll set even like quarterly goals or whatever for the year. We have the year goals and we have a quarterly things that we're trying to achieve and we get like three or four, five weeks into the quarter and I'm like, oh, but we also need to do this other thing, right? And I just want to keep adding on to the list. But obviously we've already used up a month and we've got these other things we're trying to do. And so I like the idea of a wish list just in terms of like, hey, we'll get to this eventually if it's still important, come another few months from now or a year from now, whenever we'll get to this. But I don't need to add another thing onto the team. Yes, I think that's great. I think that's great.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: The more that you give ownership to the team, the more they get excited about it and the more stuff gets done, I always go back to, the quicker I can get tasks and ideas and sops off my desk and into the team, the better it's be because I get out of the way. They have my blessings to run with it and it's not done by me, so it's glorious.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it's amazing. And what do you say to the team member? I don't know if you've had this, but sometimes when I'm charting they're like, hey, we're going to conquer this next hill or this mountain or know someone on the team, which I appreciate the honesty and the candor, right, that they can even say this, but they're like, it's almost like the, well, John, when are we going to just be happy with where we're at and are we ever going to get to a mountain and say, hey, we've got a high enough view. We don't need to take the next hill or whatever.
And that's not my personality, but I have to recognize that that is a feeling of like, oh, this just is going to mean more clients or more work or this or that, right. And they kind of just like things that the way they are. So what do you say in that situation?
[00:27:35] Speaker A: They didn't read my culture statement.
Yeah.
I think it goes back to sharing the why. Right. As a leader, we have to cast that vision. And if those projects or goals align with the vision, the ultimate goal that we set out to do, then that's the way we go. Right. And I can explain why. Why we can do this. Because I want to pay you more. I want to grow our team. I want to give back. So I try to be very crystal clear on the why.
But you're right, that happens. But I can't be comfortable for, I'm okay with being content with the growth that I've seen, but I can't settle here because I feel like we're made.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: For more and maybe even content. Maybe it's like you can celebrate, right? You can celebrate where you are, right. And you can celebrate what we've done.
But you're not going to just settle for it, right?
[00:28:38] Speaker A: No, because I just believe we're made for more. I believe our company is made for more. And because our industry is constantly evolving. I mean, look where AI is. Look at where we were talking about WordPress and where it's going. We've got to be willing to evolve. We've got to be willing to step outside of our comfort zone and stretch a little bit for the greater good of the company. Because the more I can pour into this company, the more that trickles down to the team members.
And it does come back to that culture, Steven. It does come back that them buying in, but it happens.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's great. Great. Well, Jen, I love hanging out with you. We could talk for a long time. Any closing thoughts or anything that you want to leave our listeners and viewers with before we sign off here? Just as they're thinking about, I mean, we're at the beginning of the year, right? It's like we've got the whole year ahead. We can kind of chart our course. Anything that you would just kind of say as they're maybe feeling like, oh, I've already lost a month trying to set my goals, or I already set goals in January, and I already haven't hit my weight loss plan or my fitness plan. I've already fell off the train.
What would you say?
[00:29:50] Speaker A: The goal isn't the end result. That's not the ending. So I would challenge everyone that now is the time. If you've already set those goals, it's okay to revisit them and to see what serves you now and where you want to go. And while you're looking over those, I want to challenge you to stretch them ten x them, not just play it safe. Because when we continue to play safe, we're probably going to continue to get the same kind of outcome. So to go beyond that, look at you as a whole person and really write out and get laser focused on how you want to show up, what you want from your company and what you want to give. And it has to be more than.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Good. Really good. Ladies and gentlemen, Jen Sikowski. Always a pleasure. Thank you so much, Johnny.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me back on. It's always a pleasure and I feel privileged to be here. So thank you.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to the agency hour podcast and a huge thanks to Jen for joining us. I'm always so inspired getting to hang out with Jen, and I know you were too. If you're feeling overwhelmed and need support in your agency. E two m is an amazing company offering white label services to agency owners so that you can lighten your load, serve more clients, and grow your business, definitely encourage you to check them out. And please don't forget to subscribe. And please share this with anyone who you think may need to hear it. I'm Johnny Flash. Let's get to work.
Our.
