I worked with 400+ agencies so far.

Most agencies go out of business in 1-2 years because they don't track the right metrics.

Here are 9 KPIs every agency owner must know (and how to calculate them):

1) Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

It's the total amount of money you spend (marketing + sales expenses) to acquire one customer.

Formula:

2) Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

It's the total amount of revenue you can generate from one customer throughout your relationship with them.

Formula:

3) Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

It's the total amount of revenue you can consistently predict every month.

Formula:

4) Cost Per Lead (CPL)

It's the amount you're spending to acquire one lead.

Formula:

5) Lead Conversion Ratio

It's the percentage of leads that turn into clients.

Formula:

6) Net Profit

Your net profit (or bottom line) is the total amount of money you're left with after all the expenses.

Formula:

7) Monthly Churn Rate

It's the percentage of customers who leave your agency every month.

Formula:

8) Lead Velocity Rate %

It calculates the growth of leads month-over-month, helping you predict future revenue.

Formula:

9) Primary Lead Sources

Though it isn't technically a metric, it helps you identify which sources are contributing the most to your agency's growth.


We've helped 500+ agencies with their operations so that they can spend more time doing things they enjoy and growing the business

Let us show you what you need to scale
Get a free audit here:
https://calendly.com/d/d3m-cfr-ptj

3 years ago, I was managing  800 employees at Amazon.

Fast forward - I'm working with dozens of 7-figure agency owners and running a 7 figure agency myself

Your roadmap to escape 9-5 and building a 6-figure income stream in the next 90 days 🗺️

To be able to escape your 9-5, you should get to at least $10k/month.

Here are 5 things that will help you get there 👇

1/. Niching & crafting irresistible offers
2/. Closing your first clients
3/. Onboarding & fulfilment
4/. 411 strategy
5/. Systems for monstrous scale



1/. Niching and crafting irresistible offers

You MUST target prospects who've got plenty of money and can  pay for your services.

It's going to be 10x easier to get to $10k/mo by working with 2-3 e-commerce brands/ SaaS companies than selling to 1,000 broke college students.

Here are some lucrative niches:

> VC-funded start-ups
> 7 figure e-commerce brands
> Real estate
> Doctors

But choosing one of the above niches isn't enough.

Niche down even further

You can do this on two levels:

1) By niching down within a broad market
2) By niching down based on the nature of service

Here's an illustration to help you 👇



But to be able to sell to these hick-ticket clients, you must have a no-brainer offer - something people feel stupid saying "no" to.

The way to do this is to eliminate as much risk as possible.

Risk is going to be the #1 thing that you must battle against to get the sale.

This is where your offer comes in.

Let's say you've decided "Email marketing for Series-A funded EdTech start-ups" as your service.

Your main goal is to...

> Bring in more sales,
> Increase customer LTV,
> Increase AOV

Standing out:

Your prospect will most likely receive hundreds of emails from people pitching similar services.

This is where your positioning comes into play.



Eliminate risk by:

> Guaranteeing a % lift in revenue (or)
> Guaranteeing __ no. of new customers

If you don't accomplish these goals, they pay you nothing.
Or even better, you pay them $1,000.

Remember: For this to work, you have to be confident in your ability to fulfil.

Take what you've learned from deliverables, positioning, risk elimination and apply them to your offer.

Here's what it should look like:



The secret to scaling to $100k super fast is focusing on ONE killer offer.

Rinse and repeat.

2/. Closing your first clients

Getting your first client is usually the hardest part.

It's a catch-22 situation:

You don't have case studies to get clients and you don't have clients to get case studies.

Here's what you should be doing now...

> Leverage your network

Ask your friends and family if they know anyone who could benefit from your services.

Post on LinkedIn, Twitter, and any Slack communities that you're willing to work for free in exchange for a case study and a testimonial.

> Get on Upwork

There are hundreds of jobs being posted every single day on this platform looking for services that you offer.

I've compiled a monster thread on everything you need to make your first $100k on Upwork. Check it out 👇

> Cold outreach

Sending cold emails is super effective because you can reach out to prospects who EXACTLY fit your criteria.

Shared everything you need to know about cold outreach in this thread 👇 (skip to the 4th tweet)

https://twitter.com/jordan_ross_8F/status/1560348314897227779?s=20&t=MV_aP-J-sAf9QtOwro8PkQ

Your emails are supposed to look something like this:


If you deliver awesome results for your first client and have a case study or a testimonial, there's no looking back.

3/. Onboarding & fulfilment

Now that you have closed your first client, it's time to give them a world-class customer experience.

If you screw this up, you won't have the case study/ testimonial to bring in more clients.

This is the single most important part of this thread.

Everything from your first kick-off call, weekly communication, to project management, and fulfilment should make you look like a pro.


The 48 hour giveaway:

Once the client makes the payment, give them insane amounts of value for the next 48 hours.

It's your chance to make them feel "This is the best investment I've ever made!!"

Here's what you'll be doing during this period:

> Introduce to potential partners
> Introduce to potential clients
> Introduce to service providers who can solve their other problems
> Access to discounted software
> Give away your exclusive content
> Introduce to podcast hosts

Customer success checklist:

✅ Priming your clients for success
✅ Bringing in sh*t tons of positive energy
✅ Sending gifts
✅ Offering free resources
✅ Show them the roadmap
✅ Delivering results


4/. 411 strategy

You need to have ONE north star metric (or primary goal).

Eg:

"Get to $75k MRR by December 2022"
"Add 4 new clients by end of Q3"
"Decrease churn by 25% by the end of the year"

And everything you do on a daily basis should lead you TOWARDS that goal.

Eg: "Get to $75k MRR by December 2022"

Some of the reasons why you might be stuck:

> Not setting referral partnerships
> Not creating content (for inbound leads)
> Not doing/ scaling cold outreach (via email, LinkedIn, Twitter)

Here are the activities you should focus on:

> Offer a % commission to partner agencies for referrals
> Create systems for consistently creating social media content
> Pitch an upsell (ONLY if you're crushing fulfilment)
> Ramp up outreach yourself/ hire a lead gen agency

This sounds straightforward but we do this with all of our clients.

It's easy to drift away and end up focusing on other insignificant metrics (or) activities.

This will help you stay on track and make sure you're heading in the right direction.

5/. Systems for monstrous scale

What got you from 0 to $10k won't get you from $10k to $100k.

Without having solid systems in place, you can't expect your new hires to execute their responsibilities well.

There's not a single agency which has scaled like crazy without systems.

You need extremely comprehensive SOPs for every single function of your agency.

From outreach & attending sales calls to client onboarding, and project management, every single step needs to be clearly explained.

We've helped 400+ agencies with their operations so that they can spend more time doing things they enjoy doing.

You can book a free audit here:
https://calendly.com/d/d3m-cfr-ptj

Help others help themself

RT the first tweet to help the masses escape the 9-5

READY

In 2021, all the freelancers on Upwork combined have made $3.5B.

There are over 770,000 active clients on this platform.

Your failproof, step-by-step BLUEPRINT to make $100,000 on Upwork 👇

There are 4 things you must nail if you want to get to $100k on Upwork.

1) Spotting legit $$$ opportunities
2) Sending irresistible proposals
3) Building a profile
4) Fulfilment & scaling

Let's go through each of them in detail 👇

1/. Spotting legit $$$ opportunities

No one is going to tell you about this.

As an Upwork freelancer, you'll find tons of job postings on your feed related to your skills.

That doesn't mean you apply to all these jobs.

By smartly using "filters", you can...

📍Improve your chances by 10X by applying for low competition jobs

📍Eliminate projects that aren't a good fit for you

📍Work with the best clients who'll be happy to you well

Let's go through each of them.

▶️ 2 tips to land low competition jobs:

1) Sort your job feed by "newest jobs"

This way, you can be among the first applicants to make an impression.

Sometimes, your clients have very tight deadlines. In such scenarios, you'll have a 10X edge over others if you apply early.

2) Filter by "number of proposals"

Now take this to the next level by applying for jobs with less than 15 proposals.

If it already has more than 15 proposals, your chances of landing it are fairly low, especially if you don't have a lot of prior Upwork experience.

▶️ Eliminate projects that aren't a good fit for you

Firstly, do you want to be paid by hour or by project?

If you want to be paid hourly, select the minimum rate that you're okay with.

The same goes with a project.

Secondly, determine your availability.

What's your ideal project length and how much commitment can you give on a weekly basis?

Never apply beyond your capacity.

If you can't fulfil, it'll show up in your reviews.

▶️ Working with the best clients who'll be happy to you well

Ideally, avoid clients who haven't hired earlier on Upwork.

Not all those with no Upwork history are bad.

But if you're starting out, you'd rather work with someone with at least a couple of previous hires.

5 red flags to watch out for while selecting clients:

🚩 No Upwork history
🚩 No specific budget mentioned
🚩 Vague job description
🚩 Unrealistic expectations
🚩 Rating less than 3.5

Pro tip: Check out "About the client" section in the job posting.

Stats about "Total Amount Spent" & "Avg Hourly Rate Paid" will help you get an idea of the client's budget and hiring patterns.

2/. Sending "irresistible" proposals

The biggest mistake most freelancers make is not tailoring their proposal to the requirements of the client.

They just copy-paste templates with a few changes.

Sure, it'll save you time. But guess what?

You won't get the job.

Here's what you should be doing instead 👇

▶️ Rephrase their problem.

▶️ If possible, tell them why they're facing that problem.

▶️ State past instances where you've solved a similar problem.

▶️ Tell why you would be the best fit.

▶️ Outline your process and next steps.

Here's an example of a great proposal from the Upwork legend @OmahaCopywriter 👇

Danny ticks most of the important boxes.

✅ Acknowledges the problem.
✅ States what he can and can't do (honesty wins!)
✅ Offers free and genuine advice.
✅ Clearly lays out next steps.


3/. Create a high-quality profile

On Upwork, your profile is your resume.

It helps prospective clients understand your skill-set and determine if you'd be a good fit.

And don't worry if you have multiple skill-sets.

You can create individual profiles for each of them.

These are the 10 elements of a profile

1) Profile description
2) Hourly rate
3) Availability
4) Education
5) Employment history
6) Portfolio
7) Testimonials
8) Skills
9) Certifications
10) Languages

Not all of them are equally important.

Here's what you should focus on 👇

📝 Profile description

This is your sales pitch, and your shot to capture attention of potential clients.

Description = Title + Bio

Different approaches work for different industries.

The title should be short, clear, and help you stand out, especially if you're a beginner.

For the bio, don't write lengthy, boring paragraphs.

No paragraph should be longer than 3-4 sentences.

Use bulleted lists to make it visually easier for the readers.

In the bio, write about the relevant skills and work history you have related to the profile.


If you're struggling to figure out what to write, here's a pro tip 👇

Create a "client account" and check profiles of the top freelancers in your niche for inspiration.

⏰ Hourly rate

If you're just starting on Upwork, include a fairly reasonable hourly rate.

It doesn't matter even if you're a pro outside Upwork.

Your prospects just don't know about it. So start small.

Once you start collecting testimonials and move up the ranks, you can increase your rates gradually.

If you don't know how much people in your industry charge, look at the hourly rates of the top-rated freelancers.

Charge 50% of it if it makes sense. Else, use your intuition.

🏫 Education & Employment History

Again, this is more relevant for some industries and completely irrelevant for a few.

Nevertheless, it's better to fill it out completely at least to make sure your profile is 100% complete.

📀 Portfolio

This is your chance to show off your best work.

If you're a web/ graphic designer, this is arguably the single most important thing in your profile.

Even if your work isn't technically visual, use this opportunity to showcase your best projects, case studies

Pro tip: If you don't have a "real" portfolio, create a sample one.

If you were given a certain project, how would you do it? And create accordingly.

Showing > Telling

Check this out for inspiration 👇

https://www.upwork.com/resources/web-developer-portfolio-examples

📝 Testimonials

I cannot stress how important this is to succeed as a freelancer on Upwork (and beyond).

Including relevant testimonials will show prospective clients that you've "been there, done that", thereby eliminating risk.

Social proof is your best friend.

Pro tip: If you've got testimonials from clients you've worked with outside Upwork, you can request for one.

This is especially important if you're just starting out on the platform and don't have any testimonials from Upwork clients.

🪄Skills and certifications

Include all the relevant skills that you have related to your profile.

This ensures that you'll be shown to prospective clients when they publish projects that require these specific skills.

If there are certain certifications that are considered important in your industry, complete them and include them in your profile.

Do everything to give yourself that extra edge.

Invest time in building a compelling profile.

And keep updating it as you complete more projects.

It'll continue to pay dividends in the long run.


4/. Fulfilment

Reputation is everything to grow on Upwork.

Even a few bad ratings/ reviews from clients can cause irreparable damage to your profile.

So always deliver what you've promised.

Communicate well and be on good terms with the client.

If you're confident in your services, it's more or less about scaling the previous steps to get to $100k.

As you keep delivering wins for your clients, make sure to...

📈 Productize your services
📈 Gradually increase your rates
📈 Update your profile
📈 Leverage social proof

And that's how you get to $100K!

If you want me to send all the resources for each of the above steps, RT & Like the first tweet.

And I'll DM them to you.

[link to first tweet]

But the thing is you can't scale beyond a certain limit as a freelancer.

You can only work for so many hours.

And that's when you need a team to scale your services.

The next progression would be to build an agency around it.

We helped 400+ agency owners with operations, fulfilment, and everything they need to scale to 8-figures.

https://8figureagency.co/


The fastest way to start making $15k/month:

Start an agency.

Building one from scratch looks complicated. But it doesn't have to be.

Everything you need to know to get to 5-figures per month laid down in 7 steps👇

1/. Pick your best skill

Make a list of all the business skills that you're good at. 

For example...

Rank yourself on each of these skills on a scale of 1-10.



What would be the one skill that you'd be better than most people at?

That's going to be your service.

For the purpose of this thread, let's say you're good at writing cold emails.

You can start a lead gen agency. And your job will be to book appointments for marketing agencies or SaaS companies.

2/. Find prospects

Go to Apollo and sign up for the free trial (no credit card required)

You can scrape up to 50 leads for free. Need more leads? Sign up for the paid plan.

https://apollo.io/

Time to find prospects who are most likely to buy.

Signals of hot prospects:

- Recently funded companies (they have the budget to pay you)

How to find them?

Crunchbase shares lists of recently funded companies.




- Hiring posts or job listings (shows that there's internal demand)

How to find them?

Filter through job postings on LinkedIn.

If you can see that they're hiring for an SDR, your services will be in demand.

Scrape their emails with PhantomBuster.

https://phantombuster.com/automations/linkedin/3112/linkedin-profile-scraper

Voila! 

Now you have a list of prospects you can reach out to.

But before you do that, you have to craft a killer offer.

3/. Build a no-brainer offer

If you have zero experience, you have 2 options.

1. Offer to work for free until you make them money.

Eg: "I'll book the first 10 meetings for free"

Even at a super conservative close rate of 10%, they'll sign a deal. 



2. Make a zero-risk offer

Eg: "Pay only a small percentage on closed deals with zero upfront fees."

No monthly retainers or onboarding fees yet.

You have to build credibility for that.

If you already have experience and a few solid case studies, you can do either of the following:

1. Fixed monthly retainer 

"I'll book 8-12 meetings with your ideal clients every month for $2k"

2. Pay-per-booking

"Pay $200 per call booked" Don't charge for no-shows.

You can also include an onboarding fees if you've got enough social proof.

Use either of the above options or a combination of them. 

Eg: Reasonable onboarding fee upfront + pay-per-appointment

4/. Technical set-up

Buy a domain that you'll be using only for sending cold emails.

Warm it up on Lemlist/ Warmup Inbox for 2 weeks before you send any emails.

If you skip this step, your emails will end up in spam.

This is for both your account and your clients' accounts.

5/. Start your outreach

Use Lemlist/ Mailshake/ Apollo for the same.

Send 300 cold emails. And keep testing different angles. 

You should get at least 5 responses. 

Close one of them. 

6./ Fulfilment 

Now it's time to deliver what you've promised.

Focus on doing your best job and develop a good relationship with the client.

If you do that, you should get a killer case study and a testimonial. 

You'll use these to get future clients.

7./ Rinse & Repeat

Repeat your outreach again. 

But this time, you'll be leveraging your case study in you emails.

"I've recently helped {{X Agency}} sign 2 new clients in 1 month."

As you keep delivering results, you can command higher prices. 

At a $3k/mo retainer, you need just 5 clients to make $15k/mo.

The logic is straightforward. Execution is what will help you get there.

want my best hidden hacks?

join my weekly newsletter

the value there is better than my threads!

https://grow.agencygo.io/8f-newsletter54448673

The reason you've started an agency is to have freedom. If you're doing all the work all the time, you'll never get there.

We help agency owners exit operations and scale their businesses to 7/8 figures.

Book your free agency audit below 👇

https://8figureagency.co/get-a-free-analysis/ 



Want to double your income instantly without any extra work?

Raise your prices 📈📈📈

Here is what you need to know on how to 2X

Step 0

Before anything, focus on fulfilment. 

If you can't deliver what you promise, the rest of the thread will be useless.

If you're struggling with fulfilment, check this out 

https://twitter.com/jordan_ross_8F/status/1548291381134692353?s=20&t=f4F7Tm6rR5f75sSrtImF5A

Step 1

Get rid of limiting beliefs

😨 "What if my clients think that I'm being greedy?"
😨 "What if I end up not selling to anyone?"
😨 "This is way higher than the market price. People will choose my competitor."

99% of the time, it's just in your head.

The reason you're making less money right now is because you think your offer isn't valuable enough.

There are 1000s of people out there who'd pay you 3-5X your current prices without any questions.

If you believe you're only worth your time, you'll be doomed forever. 

Switch your mindset 🔀

By increasing your prices, you're doing yourself, your team, and your clients a favor.

🔻 You can offer better pay to your employees 

🔻 As a result, you can offer better service to your clients 

🔻 And most importantly, you'll make higher profits

Step 2

Sell the outcome, not the service

"Email marketing services for D2C brands" 

v/s

"Increase your email-attributable revenue by 30% in the next 60 days."

Now package this into a product/ solutions aka "productized services"

- Monthly and quarterly email strategy
- Ongoing A/B testing
- Copy and design 
- Segmentation
- Flow optimization

How different does this look from vague offers that don't communicate anything?

 

Step 3 

Understand the value equation. 

There are 4 variables you can influence 

- Dream outcome 
- Perceived likelihood of achievement
- Time delay 
- Effort & sacrifice

To increase the value of your services, try increasing the top 2 and reducing the bottom 2. 

Simple math

Let's understand this better with the help of an example. (eg, email marketing agency)

1. Dream outcome - increase your email-attributable revenue by 30%

2. Perceived likelihood of achievement - 80%

3. Time delay - 60 days

4. Effort - minimal engagement

Here's how you can craft a no-brainer offer out of this.

"Increase your email revenue by 30% in the next 60 days. Else, we return your money back or work for free until you reach your goal."

Boom! 💥

Higher the value you can create, the more you can charge.

Step 4

Add sh*t tons of social proof. 

It could include

- Text/ video testimonials
- Case studies
- Reviews/ ratings

This instantly builds your credibility and makes them feel safer.

It shows that you've done it before and you can do it again. 

Always remember - 

"Social proof is your best friend and risk is your biggest enemy." 

If you can provide a guarantee and completely eliminate risk out of the equation, you can instantly charge much more. 



Step 5 

Downsell the upsell 

If you're charging $2k for a service, increase it to $4k. 

And now provide 2 payment options

1️⃣ Pay $4k in 2 instalments - $2k upfront and $2k in 30 days.

2️⃣Pay $3k today and save $1k.

This works for 2 reasons. 

✅ You and your client are familiar with $2k as it's your usual pricing. 
Familiarity creates calmness.

✅ Anchoring to a higher price point ($4k) and downselling for a lesser price ($3k) incentivizes them to take advantage of the prepayment discount.

Remember. 

Your goal should be to collect as much cash as possible upfront. 

And that's how you double your income without extra work.

Want my best hacks weekly? Join my Agency Hacks Weekly newsletter, to get more of this

Subscribe here:

http://grow.agencygo.io/8F-newsletter

Enjoyed reading this thread?

Follow @jordan_ross_8F for more advice on how to scale your agency and remove yourself from operations.

You'll also enjoy this thread 👇



https://twitter.com/jordan_ross_8F/status/1549438448716730369

In the last 12 months, my clients have employed over 1,000 people and have earned over $150,000,000 

I have the (simple) 6 step system that will help you scale to $10,000,000 by recruiting EPIC talent 

This framework isnt just words

I just onboarded a new team member last week 

stealing him from a fortune 250 company after recruiting him for...

4 years (2018-2022)

1-The Big 3

All of the 8 figure companies Ive worked with have had a big three

CEO- Vision, evolution of company, iteration of offer, culture, new ventures, brand
COO- Head of operations and people
President- Head of growth

you dont have to start with a big three, but youll need all three to hit 10M

2-Vision

Great talent want to work at great companies

Everyone is competitively compensated nowadays

Assuming you take care of your people financially, in order to bring in the best talent, youll need something MORE

a BIG vision gives that extra BUMP

Every single week, I remind our team what were playing for:

TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Some short term goals well hit along the way:

10M
50M
100M

Im not in this for a sale

Im in this to dominate for decades 

That mentality attracts TALENT

When I, or some of my great clients, get Infront of talent we want to recruit, we commonly share our vision and short term goals

an easy hack to begin to leverage when playing the long (recruiting) game is to share goals 

and then 

update prospects when you hit milestones 

by showing prospects that you're hitting your intended milestones, youre showing them that those big audacious goals arent just words

they are a potential reality 

Here is how I did this with my newest team member, Justin

Back in 2016, I told Justin I was going to build a massive business

When I quit Amazon, I updated him again

When we hit $250,000  ARR I updated him

When we hit $500,000 ARR I updated him

By the time I reached out to him to ask him to leave his fortune 250 company with a nice salary, stock and great benefits

It was already a lock

the message was pretty straight forward 

come in with me early and the upside will be bigger than anything you can imagine 

that tied me up for the final step

Making the ask

I commonly ask top talent what their number is

"How much would you need to make to leave your current company and join mine?"

This gives me a starting point for an informal negotiation 

Whenever I get a number from someone, the game is on

I send a few videos about my agency and ask them review them

If they like what they see, and are still interested, I get them on the phone for a serious conversation

By the time someone is on the phone, they have

seen my vision
seen me hit my goals
Given me their desired salary
Watched training videos on our culture and fulfillment

some would say

this talent prospect is primed to close

and

they are

final step: make the hire 

TL;DR

1- Assemble a Big 3
2- Cast an ambitious vision
3- Share that vision with top talent
4- Share wins with top talent
5- Make the Ask
6- Hire

If you liked this, you’ll love my Agency Hacks Weekly newsletter, subscribe here:

www.agencygrowthhacks.co


How to recruit talent

Want to build a multi-million dollar digital agency?

Here is a 2-step framework I've mastered from working with 350+ agencies and helping clients generate over $100,00,000+ in revenue.

🧵 : The 8f House Model

Agency owners DO NOT know how to scale

They are great at marketing and sales but suck at operations

In order to scale, you MUST scale yourself out of the operation

When you do this, you will: 

1: Increase your revenue

2: Work with freedom of will

3: Get incredible results for yourself (and your clients)

Your first step must be to focus on:

HIGH LEVERAGE ACTIVITIES

Hihg leverage activities are the things that, when you invest an hour of your time, you can get 5, 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars in return, and

It compounds: it continues to come back

So, if we’re going to get you out of the operation, you must first understand how to scale an operation

Here is where my ‘8F agency house model’ comes into play

Building an agency is like building a house;

If you have a strong foundation you can scale as large as 9 figures

When it comes to scaling an agency operation

There’s two things that you need to start the operation:

1: The Operating System (OS)

2: Org Chart, KPIs, and Goals

1/ The OS - Your Software (PM, SOPs, Workflows, Templates) 

The OS is where you house all software needs:

CRM, LMS, Project management, Org Chart, Client management system

For me, my OS is housed in airtable

I cannot stress this enough

Your progress as an agency owner depends on how efficiently you run your project management and fulfillment

If you want to run a killer operation, you’ll need to have the following three items

• Have clear workflows

• Templatized project management

• Clear and actionable SOPs

The first step of building an epic OS is to build your operational workflows

A Workflow is a defined set of steps that take your client journey from prospecting to growing client accounts (over several months)

Here is an example of a great workflow
https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOY6LFWE=/?invite_link_id=679853382968 

Benefit: If you build an operational workflow from start to finish, you’ll have a list of the processes you need to templatize in your project management system

Benefit of building templates: These help you standardize and systematize everything inside of your operation

This in turn will help you build SOPs and training (referring to house analogy)

Simply put

Workflows → Templates → SOPs and training

Your main goal here is to adopt a templatized approach for your PM while onboarding or retaining clients

Doing this gets half of the work done for you and your team

You just copy and paste the template and the team member just has to execute a list of repeatable actions

Here is a video showing how templates play into your project management

https://www.loom.com/share/c2a197732a4c4e7cacb6cd9babd67d14?from_recorder=1&focus_title=1 

If youre struggling with your OS, feel free to reach out to my partners at Talos (I refer all my agencies to them and

https://calendly.com/david-at-talos/free-systems-audit-8f

2: The Org Chart, KPIs, and Goals

The next most important thing is having an org chart with clear KPIs and goals

Goals refer to outputs 

example: client media buying accounts have a ROAS of =>5x

KPIs refer to inputs

Example: optimize campaigns the first week of each month

Once inputs are established, you can log these into a checklist and run daily/weekly audits on your teams execution 

Great operators audit and ensure their team executes their daily action to grow

Doing this helps you enagle the following ⬇️

• Setting a target and benchmarking performance against it

• Ensuring efficiency of tasks overall

• Helping to track progress of goals over time

• Gauging the output of work being done

In short, these elements can be used to gauge performance and ensure accountability

When you have clear KPIs and goals, this will enable you to build best in class:

• Customer success

• Fulfillment

• Onboarding

• Training

When you have all of these things, it will enable you to audit the agency and have great:

• Management

• HR systems

• Data tracking

That is how you build a million dollar agency from the operational side

And SCALE it!

The Agency House Foundaiton

At age 24 Amazon let me manage 2500 employees and a $50,000,000 business unit

I learned that leadership at scale is simply about following this one framework 

This is going to make you and I hundreds of millions of dollars

Culture is what your people say and do when you are not around 

Becoming a master of influencing the behavior of others = becoming a master of culture 

There are 3 pillars every leader should use in their language to crush influence

Values
MVP
Heuristics 

values are the 5-10 things your company prioritizes as ‘must haves’ 

They are non negotiables  

Individually, they aren’t unique 

Together, they create a unique DNA called ‘your company’

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ptbAXh6uS2moG1WeTi4t3bFhaGZJkkFn90SRUa-Ma9Q/edit?usp=sharing

Heuristics are a simple set of rules that drive complex behaviors

In nature, heuristics are what enable ants to build massive ant farms or bees to build huge bee hives

We want to create these in our agency to build something well beyond ourselves 

https://vimeo.com/656332382/442a25ee6b

MVP= mission, vision, purpose

The why behind the organization 

Everyone, especially now, wants to strive for something more than a paycheck 

Not having this in your business will make you obsolete real quick 

https://vimeo.com/659408123/16a44d20f0

once you have these, the KEY is knowing how to use them

Here are the 4 ways you should be using them

1- In feedback

Dont tell someone how they can improve

tell them how they can improve using the values/heuristics

"Hey name, you continue to point out problems in our operation without proposing a solution. Remember, ownership is one of our key values. An owner in this case would propose a solution with each problem they identify"

2- In your praise/shout outs 

in 1 on 1s, on the fly, in all hands, in meetings

"I wanted to give a big shout out to Kelsie. Shes been displaying a lot of bias for action this quarter and was able to optimize our clients email campaign to net a $10,000 return. Great jobs Kels!"

Here is an example of how I implemented this with a client last month

https://www.loom.com/share/fde2a5f79a124006ba794ca5d0acdd2e

3- For inspiration 

in 1 on 1s, in all hands, in meetings 

"remember, the goal of 8F is the change the way the world works. If were going to do that, we MUST, be world class. Im going to continue to push you to be your best until we get there."

https://www.loom.com/share/23888edd0f1f4f8393c92f4413fdcaff

4- as a reminder on a weekly basis

start of or end of meetings, mid convos, really anytime you can mention

"were 40% of the way on our goal to help 1000 agencies. Lets keep pushing team!"


Together, when said consistently over time, these change behavior

It must become a priority of yours as a leader to build this as a habit if you have more than 3 employees on your team

Here is a training I made breaking down this whole concept

https://www.loom.com/share/46a75e6c462b4e1e96ac4d60cf925310

Ready to scale but dont want to do it alone?

Join myself and 220 other agency owners in my slack community where we can scale together

https://www.agencygo.io/8f-agency?via=jordan-ross

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: 

How to influence millions


I built a framework that will save agency owners 10 hours a month

And give you ability to use those 10 hours to scale to $1M ARR

🧵THREAD: Increasing the performance of your team

Employees ask a F ton of questions

they slack you, knock on your door, and disrupt your flow state

distractions from work are the #1 killer of productivity 

you MUST stop this, so you can focus on the important work that grows your agency 

here is how to do this

Create an FAQ form that all team members must fill out prior to asking a question

if they ask a question, the new rule in your agency should be:

1- did you google it?
2- did you submit the question in the FAQ form?
3- did you check the FAQ form for an answer?
4- is this urgent?

if its not urgent, tell them youll answer their question in the form by end of day, and to remember, DONT bother you during your productive hours!

here is how you can build this process (shown via airtable)

1- Create the form (or on airtable, base)

Step 2- Delete all existing columns in your new base by right clicking on the column and then clicking “delete field”


Step 3- Add a form to your new base & add relevant questions to the form

Step 3.1- Name your new form (Suggested name= FAQ Form)

Step 4- In your new form, add in all questions you want employees to fill out and the areas you will fill out once questions are submitted.

Step 4.1- Click add a field to this table to add questions

Step 4.2- Add all form ‘questions’

Suggested questions & type of form:

A- Question, long text

B- Department, Single Select (so employees can filter through questions in the future)

C- Answer- SOP, URL (So you can have a written document with answers hyperlinked)

D- Answer- Video, URL (So you can have a video reply hyperlinked)

Step 5- Distribute the form to your team & create new expectation

FAQ Expectation: all questions that are asked must first be:

A- Checked to see if they are in the database

B- If they are not, enter the new question into the database through the formtw

Step 6- Copy and paste link in an email to the team

Step 7- Go through and answer questions!

Once this process is implemented, you will begin to have to block off time weekly to answer the questions your teams pose. Don't worry though! This time around, your time will be highly leveraged

Each time you make a training, it will be a one to many tradeoff, something that you haven't had in the past!

Step 8- Ensure this process is followed forever

do this and i guarantee you add at least 50k MRR from the time savings (if you have a team of 4+ people) 

FAQ Process

 
I have the stereotypical 'perfect life’

I live on the beach
I have an amazing wife
I run a dope company 
Money isnt a problem

And yet, I sometimes get random bouts of anxiety 

Let me show you how to handle this ish like a millionaire so you can live your best life

🧵

The mind is not meant to thrive, its meant to survive

we are genetically wired to survive

70% of our waking time is conditioned through  our genetics to be in 'survival' mode

our senses are heightened 

our awareness is raised

and, in return

we pump adrenaline and cortisol

because of this, anxiety is EASY to experience

were wired to experience anxiety 

so first, stop being so hard on yourself

Ill be walking on the beach, having a PERFECT day and randomly get hit with anxiety for no reason

it happens

the mind is sick

and so is the body

there are 2 things you need to learn into to crush anxiety when it comes up

1- breathwork + visualization
2- gratitude

here is the breathwork process

visualize your anxiety in your body

on your inhales visualize it going to your throat

and on your exhales visualize it leaving your body

do this enough times and your anxiety will go away

https://www.loom.com/share/650598bfb2f2454285488ae0af045c19

gratitude

gratitude is the biggest hack in the game

your body cant be anxious and grateful at the same time

its not possible

if you can close your eyes and visualize something that made you feel happy

your body will begin to pump those emotions of happiness through your body again

this is why gratitude is huge

check out this video breakdown on how to leverage gratitude to stop anxiety and increase performance

https://www.loom.com/share/66e1ae6fb8f2412e8c0a7b31512b69e9

ready to level up your entrepreneurial game?

follow @jordan_Ross_8f for daily GOLD on scaling an agency 