How to Build a Profitable Agency that Runs Without You

“All of my successes massively outpace my capabilities. Like when you meet me, you're like, ‘I can't believe that guy did all the shit that he did’. Because I look homeless and I'm not really as bright as I pretend to be. I'm not self-deprecating—it's a fact. My success outpaces my capability because I found other people that were more capable than me."Kasim Aslam is the CEO of Solutions 8, co-founder of Driven Mastermind, and co-host of the Perpetual Traffic podcast. He has built four multi-million dollar agencies and had two exits, one of which was an eight-figure deal. Kasim's success in the agency world, particularly in the Google Ads space, and his ability to scale businesses with minimal initial capital make him an impressive figure in the industry.He’s also one of the most energetic and insightful guests this podcast has seen thus far.This episode of Agency Journey will be a perfect listen for agency owners and entrepreneurs looking to remove themselves from the business, identify and keep their most valuable team members, and build the mindset that will take your operation to the next level.Kasim shared a whirlwind of inspiration, including but not limited to: the crucial differences between employees (farmers) and entrepreneurs (hunters); the power of offering equity to top performers; the importance of hiring people who can outperform you in their roles; and the benefits of seeking out hard challenges for personal and professional growth.Episode Insights:💡 Seeking a business mentor can provide valuable guidance and support in personal and professional growth.💡 Asking for help is essential and should not be seen as a sign of weakness. But you need to be humble and willing to do the hard work for others to decide to help you.💡 Seek out hard things for the sake of doing hard things.💡 People are the most important aspect of agency operations and can be the key differentiator in a competitive market. Incentivize and retain peak performers by offering profit share equity.💡 Surround yourself with people who are smarter and more capable than you in their respective roles to build a successful agency.💡 AI is a force multiplier of people—which can be both good and bad, making people even more important in business.💡 Understand that employees (farmers) and entrepreneurs (hunters) have different motivations and expectations, and build your business model accordingly.💡 Tying employee compensation directly to their output and the value they bring to the agency can help balance growth and profitability.💡 Success often outpaces an individual's capabilities because of the power of finding and cultivating talented people.Resourced Mentioned:📚 "No Locked Doors" by Gregory Smith📚 "You Versus Google" by Kasim Aslam📚 "Driven" by Douglas Brackmann and Randy Kelley🏢 Driven Mastermind, co-founded by Kasim Aslam: https://drivenmastermind.com/?utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam🏢 Solutions 8, Kasim's agency that he recently sold: https://sol8.com/?utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam🏢 Pareto Talent, Kasim's new venture focused on finding and training executive assistants and other roles for entrepreneurs🎙️ Perpetual Traffic, co-hosted by Kasim Aslam: https://perpetualtraffic.com/?utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam👤 Gregory Smith, Kasim's long-time business mentor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregory1/👤 Erik Huberman, founder of Hawke Media https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhuberman/LikeSubscribeHit the bellLeave a commentSay something nice to your neighborFollow+rate us on podcast platformsAnd don’t forget to floss!----------------------------------About ZenPilot:As ClickUp's first and highest-rated solutions partner, we've helped over 2,700 agencies streamline their operations in ClickUp. 📕 Get our ultimate "How to Use" ClickUp guide: https://www.zenpilot.com/clickup-guide?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam🥇 Learn why ZenPilot is ClickUp's highest-rated solutions partner: https://www.zenpilot.com/clickup-consultant-and-highest-rated-partner?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam💰 Uncover which clients, projects, and services are most profitable for your business with ZenPilot reports: https://www.zenpilot.com/agency-profitability-and-utilization-reporting?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam----------------------------------⚡️ Want to see how your agency operations stack up against 2,000 other firms? take the 20-question benchmark: https://tools.zenpilot.com/pm-benchmark/?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam📕 Download the 47-page guide on how to implement ClickUp for agencies: https://www.zenpilot.com/how-to-implement-clickup-for-agencies?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam📨 Get biweekly agency ops insights from our newsletter: https://www.zenpilot.com/first-class-operations-newsletter?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam🎁 FREE client onboarding ClickUp template for agencies: https://www.zenpilot.com/client-onboarding-clickup-template?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=agency-journey-ep-292-kasim-aslam

“Candidate expectations have certainly accelerated. There's a difference today versus 10 years ago in terms of what people's expectations are and how fast other processes are going. And so moving quickly is an advantage in a hiring process—and figuring out how to move quickly without sacrificing on the process is a little bit of an art.”In this episode, our very own Gray McKenzie discusses the process of hiring the right people for an agency. He shares his recent experience of hiring an Integrator and COO for ZenPilot, and all the small and big decisions that shaped the recruitment process. Gray explains the hiring framework we followed, the stages of the hiring process, the approach towards sourcing and screening candidates, and much more.A great listen for anyone looking to expand their team—it will help you craft a fast process that surfaces the best talent and captures it before it goes off the market.Episode Insights:💡 Hiring the right people is crucial for agency growth and success.💡 “Who: the A Method for Hiring” is a framework that can help agencies find and hire the best candidates.💡 It’s important to promote your job postings selectively to have a higher quality pipeline.💡 Clear communication and transparency about the role and expectations are key in attracting the right candidates. Have a defined hiring process to provide clarity and confidence to both candidates and the hiring team.💡 Move quickly in the hiring process to meet candidate expectations and avoid losing top talent.💡 Reference checks are crucial to gather additional insights and validate a candidate's performance.💡 Group interviews can provide different perspectives and help candidates and team members build rapport.💡 Consider a co-working session as part of your hiring process to assess candidates in action.💡 Make connections with unsuccessful candidates to maintain positive relationships and potential future opportunities.Resourced Mentioned:🌐 ZenPilot 🌐 Gray’s LinkedIn 📚 "Who: The A Method for Hiring" by Geoff Smart and Randy Street📚 "Topgrading" by Bradford D. Smart⚙️ EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System)🤝 EOS Self-Implementers Group ⚒️ Loom----------------------------------Brought to you by ZenPilot, ClickUp’s #1 Solutions Partner with 2,700+ agency ops makeovers under our belt.📕 Get our free, 56-page ebook: "How to Use ClickUp – The Ultimate Guide": 👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot

"I think the hardest thing that all HubSpot agencies are trying to solve for is… 500 product updates this year. How do you keep it all straight? How do you share that knowledge? How much knowledge do you have to know as a team, to what level? One thing that I practice and preach is: not everybody's going to know everything, but that collectively as a team and as an agency, we've got people in certain areas that are experts in those areas that we can rely on."Adam Sharrow is the founder of Process Pro Consulting, a HubSpot Diamond Partner agency specializing in technical implementation, optimization, and support for businesses using HubSpot.Drawing from his experience in building and scaling a successful HubSpot agency, Adam shares about navigating the challenges of growth, managing a team of experts, and staying ahead of the curve even as HubSpot releases 500+ product updates each year.This episode of Agency Journey will be perfect for agency owners looking to specialize in a specific niche, such as HubSpot consulting, and build a sustainable, scalable business model.You'll learn about the importance of conducting thorough client assessments, balancing quick wins with long-term strategic planning, and fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and expertise within your growing team.Episode Insights:💡 Challenges and strategies for running a HubSpot-focused agency—from a HubSpot Diamond Partner💡 The trajectory of HubSpot: where it’s going in the future, and how it relates to how Salesforce grew💡 The importance of a paid discovery/assessment—and seeing it through even when clients want to jump to solving specific issues💡 The capacity planning challenges created by month-to-month retainers (and how to mitigate them)💡 Staying on top of 500+ HubSpot product updates per year and managing collective internal expertise as you scale💡 Addressing the challenges of scaling from 5 to 10 to 15 people—and how it impacts which metrics you track💡 Specializing in your wheelhouse of expertise vs trying to solve everything + the benefits of partnering with other agencies for complementary needs💡 How to build sales pipeline as a HubSpot agencyResourced Mentioned:📚 Process Pro Consulting website 📚 Adam Sharrow on LinkedIn👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot

We’ve got an announcement to share about the future of the podcast.👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot

“In today's day and age people are scared to be measured. But your athletes, they love it because that's how they grew up. How do you know who are the best players on the team? You look at the box score, you look at the stat sheet. So I like bringing a sports mentality to everything I do.”Casey Cavell is a serial entrepreneur. He’s built a $40,000,000 portfolio from a $9,000 investment by founding, buying, or investing in dozens of small businesses over the last two decades.He also has personal experience with the kind of burnout that results from the business growing and relying too heavily on one person.Which is why he now focuses on helping companies simplify, focus, and get the business owner out of the day-to-day.This episode of Agency Journey will be perfect if you’re an entrepreneur thinking about investing in and increasing the value of other businesses; bringing in A-players; and mindfully delegating tasks until you’re left working on what you do best and love most.Episode Insights:💡 How Casey found underperforming businesses to acquire, and how he turned them into more systematic, process-driven organizations💡 Buying businesses outright vs coming in as an investor💡 Structuring equity/profit-sharing deals with clients—including earning trust with a 90-day initial engagement💡 How to prevent burnout by delegating tasks, hiring A-players, and removing reliance on the owner💡 The specific tasks entrepreneurs should delegate first💡 Defining what you want your business to do for your lifeResourced Mentioned:📚 Casey’s consulting business📚 Casey’s LinkedIn📚 The Dugout CEO podcast📚 The Friday Drive newsletter 📚 Books: Good to Great; Rich Dad Poor Dad; The E-Myth👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot

“I had bought into this idea that you had to sacrifice everything you had to kill yourself for growth. And it cost me dearly. I made some really poor decisions.”Carlos Hidalgo is co-founder & CEO of Digital Exhaust, a Utah-based data-driven, AI-enabled agency with a belief that "growth is a state of being, not just a goal to be achieved".But he's also a man with a dramatic story of putting his business ahead of his other life priorities—and learning some very hard lessons from that.This episode of Agency Journey will be a perfect reality check for agency owners, and an opportunity to re-assess the importance you should put on your agency relative to the current stage of your life journey.It will be especially relevant if you're balancing being a business owner with being a spouse, a parent, and a person driven by faith.Episode Insights:💡 The pivotal moments that reshaped Carlos's perspective on work-life balance and led him to reassess his priorities—including stepping down from one of his previous agencies.💡 Practical wisdom on setting non-negotiable boundaries, prioritizing well-being, and staying true to your business ethos.💡 Specific practices and habits Carlos introduced with his wife and himself to build a balanced and fulfilling life as an agency owner.💡 The virtues of being selective about what you're willing to invest yourself in, and how much.Resourced Mentioned:📚 Digital Exhaust 📚 The UnAmerican Dream by Carlos Hidalgo (book) 📚 Carlos' LinkedIn 🛠️ AI tools: Otter, ChatGPT, Jasper👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot

“I have long seen myself as: I’m a very good marketer. I'm a very good communicator. I'm a good content creator. That's my lane. I know how to drive in that lane very, very well. And this has been a challenge for me to say: how do I become the best president, owner of a services business? Versus the best marketer anybody knows.”Ali Schwanke is founder and CEO of Simple Strat—a Diamond HubSpot Solutions Partner and premium B2B content marketing agency.You may know them from the HubSpot Hacks YouTube channel, the #1 unofficial source of HubSpot tutorials with over 20k subscribers to the channel.This episode will be a perfect listen for agency operators looking to find their perfect niche; discover content topics and formats that work on YouTube; and become a better leader by leveraging their unique leadership style.It’s also full of inspiration for owners considering making an exit from their agency.Episode Insights:💡 Simple Strat’s journey towards becoming experts in the HubSpot ecosystem through content creation and strategic focus💡 How Ali and her team approach content production and finding ideas for their HubSpot Hacks channel on YouTube (leveraging TubeBuddy, AirTable, and HubSpot rep feedback)💡 Moving from solving problems on her own to empowering team members to learn and grow💡 Ali’s advice on leadership styles, the shift in mindset from a marketer to an agency owner, and the importance of systems and processes in scaling an agency💡 Ali’s thoughts on how to prepare for a future exit from an agency, including the importance of mindset but also legal compliance, data preparation, and moreResourced Mentioned:📚 Simple Strat 📚 Ali Schwanke’s LinkedIn📚 HubSpot Hacks YouTube channel 📚 TubeBuddy (for YouTube keyword research)📚 "Work Less, Earn More" by Karl Sakas (book)📚 "Built to Sell" by John Warrillow (book)📚 "How to Win Client Business When You Don't Know What You're Doing" by Doug Fletcher (book)👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot

“If you don't like managing people, one of the things to consider is: do you want to run an agency? The management portion will never go away. But it also doesn't have to be so hard.”Karl Sakas, agency advisor and founder of Sakas & Company, has served as “agency therapist” for over 600 clients in 36 countries. He was also our recent guest on Agency Journey. His fourth time on the show!You can guess why we had Karl on so many times—his insights are always on point.If you want to work less and earn more, and be a better leader for your agency through cultivating personal relationships and intentional leadership training, this episode will be well worth a listen.Episode Insights:💡 The four stages of day-to-day involvement agency owners progress through on the way to becoming optional💡 Managing expectations as you plan your agency succession💡 Karl’s process and challenges narrating the audio version of his book, “Work Less, Earn More”💡 The importance of warmth vs. competence as a manager💡 Practical tips for building personal relationships with team members and network contacts💡 Karl’s personal investment in leadership development, including his own coaching and participation in intensive leadership programs💡 The importance of 360 evaluation as a leader💡 The leadership development programs Karl recommendsResourced Mentioned:📚 Sakas & Company: https://sakasandcompany.com/📚 Karl’s book, “Work Less, Earn More” (plus companion workbook): https://sakasandcompany.com/lp/work-less-earn-more-book/📚 The Manager Tools training program Karl recommends: https://manager-tools.com/📚 Karl’s Agency Leadership Intensive (sign-ups open until end of February): https://sakasandcompany.com/agency-leadership-development-program/👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot

“We all consider ourselves humble experts. So we all know that we're good at what we do, but ego does not get in the way around our workplace.”Arianne Foulks, CEO and founder of Aeolidia, a one-stop shop agency for creative ecommerce brands with 20+ years of market presence, was our recent guest on Agency Journey.If you want to build an efficient, adaptable agency that builds strong relationships with clients and employees—this episode will be perfect for you.Episode Insights:💡 Transitioning from a solo operation to managing a 20-person creative team💡 The philosophy of nurturing a 'humble expert' team culture💡 Leveraging tools like ClickUp for effective project management💡 Arianne’s decision-making process regarding partnership with other agencies💡 The evolution of Aeolidia's pricing and service offerings during the pandemicResources Mentioned:📚 Aeolidia: https://aeolidia.com/📚 "Profit First" and "Clockwork" by Mike Michalowicz for business management📚 "4000 Weeks" by Oliver Burkeman for a perspective on productivity and time management📚 ClickUp for project management and tracking👉 Don’t forget to follow and rate us on your preferred podcast platforms. We’re also on YouTube: @ZenPilot

[This is a special feature of Gray's recent appearance on Perpetual Traffic—reposted on the Agency Journey feed so you don't miss this informative discussion!]Kasim chats with Gray MacKenzie, the co-founder of ZenPilot, a company that helps agencies master project management. Gray reveals why project management is more than just software, and how to create effective processes and habits. He also shares how to set up your scorecard, track your client health, and deliver an awesome experience for your team and clients. Plus, he gives you the three secrets to project management success and how to avoid the most common mistakes.Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction and Welcome00:01:59 - How to Calculate the ROI of Project Management00:07:20 - How Zenpilot Evolved Over 10 Years00:19:08 - How to Measure and Improve Client Health00:24:42 - The Three Keys to Making Project Management Work Well00:26:19 - How to Use ClickUp and Teamwork for Project Management00:28:16 - How to Define Your Scorecard and Track Your Progress00:30:25 - How AI Can Enhance Project Management00:33:18 - How to Design Your Data Architecture for AI00:37:17 - How AI Can Automate Task Creation and Summary00:39:30 - How Gamification Can Motivate and Engage Your Team00:40:38 - How AI Can Optimize Capacity Management00:46:15 - How to Create Structure and Clarity for Your Team00:48:25 - How to Use Time Tracking for Capacity ManagementLINKS AND RESOURCES:ZenPilotGray MacKenzie on LinkedInClickUpEOS® V/TO™ Template - V/TO™ TemplateEOS - Entrepreneurial Operating SystemTraffic & Conversion SummitTier 11 JobsPerpetual Traffic on YouTubeTiereleven.comSolutions 8 Perpetual Traffic SurveyPerpetual Traffic WebsiteFollow Perpetual Traffic on TwitterConnect with Kasim on Twitter and Connect with Ralph on LinkedIn👋 See you next time for a regular Agency Journey episode!