Leadership and Growth Secrets from E2M's Manish Dudharejia

Summary

In this episode of the Agency Hour podcast, Manish Dudharejia, founder and CEO of E2M Solutions, joins as the guest for the 100th episode. He shares insights into leadership by emphasizing the importance of owning failures and passing on credit. The discussion covers creating processes to tackle common agency issues, managing out-of-scope work, and maintaining high-quality service delivery amidst team growth. Additionally, they reflect on memorable moments from MavCon and the benefits of belonging to the vibrant Agency Mavericks community. The episode concludes with appreciating E2M's partnership and its crucial role in supporting digital agencies.

Highlights

• Manish discusses the importance of leadership owning failures and passing credit to build trust. 🎤
• The role of processes in managing team dynamics and client expectations is crucial. 🛠️
• A look back at what made MavCon events special and unique, like concerts and community vibes. 🎶
• How E2M Solutions aids agencies in managing bandwidth and capacity issues. 🤝
• The backstory of how E2M became a sponsor of Agency Mavericks showcases the power of a well-strategized cold email. ✉️

Key Takeaways

• Own your failures and pass the credit to your team to build a positive culture. 🎤
• Critical processes are essential to handle recurring issues effectively. 🛠️
• Maintain clear roles and responsibilities to prevent conflicts. ⚖️
• Encourage a learning mindset among teams to grow from mistakes and improve continuously. 📚
• Communicate clearly with clients about service boundaries to manage expectations. 📨

Overview

Manish Dudharejia joins the podcast as the special guest for the centennial 100th episode. He shares his insights on leadership, particularly focusing on the importance of owning failures and distributing credit amongst the team, which fosters a positive and accountable working environment. His approach empowers teams to learn from mistakes and encourages a culture of continuous improvement and optimism.

The conversation delves into the necessity of creating robust processes to solve frequent problems within agencies, highlighting how clear roles and responsibilities can prevent conflicts. Manish emphasizes on evolving these processes over time to meet the demands of growing teams and projects, ensuring high-quality standards are maintained consistently. Listeners also receive advice on how to handle requests that fall outside standard service agreements, stressing the importance of clear communication and setting appropriate boundaries with clients.

Recalling the joy and camaraderie at recent MavCon events, Manish reflects on how unconventional setups and engaging activities foster a community-like atmosphere, enhancing collaborative learning. The episode ends with a celebration of the partnership between E2M and Agency Mavericks, prompted by an opportune cold email, and a shared mission to support agencies globally, making business growth and learning both fun and effective.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction The chapter discusses the approach of encouraging the team to learn from mistakes by identifying three things that could have been done better. It aims to cultivate a mindset of positivity and optimism among the leadership team. Additionally, it introduces 'The Agency Hour Podcast,' which is focused on helping web design and digital agency owners create abundance for themselves and their teams.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Welcoming Manish Dudharejia In this chapter, the focus is on Manish Dudharejia, the founder and CEO of e2m Solutions, who joins the podcast as part of the 100th episode celebration. The discussion highlights the work of e2m Solutions, which provides digital agencies with white-label services to address their bandwidth and capacity challenges. Aside from business insights, a key theme of the episode is leadership, particularly the importance of leaders owning up to failures while giving credit for successes to others.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Discussion on Leadership The chapter titled 'Discussion on Leadership' focuses on the fundamentals of creating processes that can effectively solve daily problems faced by an agency. It delves into the issues related to working outside of scope and strategies to avoid such pitfalls. Furthermore, it addresses the challenges of maintaining team alignment and consistently delivering high-quality services, especially as the team expands.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Cultural Exchange and Events The chapter begins with a vibrant atmosphere indicated by music playing and Manish greeting Johnny. The two express mutual excitement about meeting again, evidenced by Manish's enthusiastic welcome and Johnny's gratitude for being back on the show. They reminisce about a recent event, Mavcon, held near Washington DC. Johnny appreciates the presence of Manish and his team at the event, highlighting the enjoyable interactions and experiences shared. The chapter sets a warm, friendly tone with focus on cultural exchanges and networking at Mavcon.
• 04:00 - 05:00: MavCon Experience The chapter titled 'MavCon Experience' recounts a unique and positive experience. The narrator discusses the event sponsored last year in San Diego, noting that Kevin from their team attended as he resides there. This year's event marked the first time the narrator attended, highlighting its uniqueness, especially since they were in Australia a few months prior for an event in Gold Coast.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Church Venue and Surprise Concert The chapter titled 'Church Venue and Surprise Concert' begins with the narrator describing their arrival in Fairfax and how they were welcomed and hosted at a friend's house, playing games and enjoying the casual, community atmosphere. It felt more like a friendly gathering than a formal conference.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Surprise Concert Experience The chapter titled 'Surprise Concert Experience' discusses an exciting and unconventional concert event held at a church, creating a unique atmosphere. The narrator recalls the thrill and fun of attending the event, highlighting the moment when two colleagues made their debut performance on stage.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Manish's Team and Leadership Philosophy The chapter discusses Manish's team and leadership philosophy in the context of the Mavcon event. Mavcon is a tri-annual event for Mavericks and special guests, allowing for a personal, immersive experience. The narrator shares how attendees had a fantastic experience, emphasizing the value of these events for team connection and leadership development.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Mistakes and Learning The chapter 'Mistakes and Learning' explores the importance of collaboration and the exchange of ideas among like-minded individuals. It highlights the significance of practical knowledge and experiences that are directly applicable to real-world scenarios. The section mentions the contributions of sponsors, particularly Manish from e2m, and describes a pre-conference event hosted at a home, involving engaging activities like laser tag.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Team and Processes The chapter titled 'Team and Processes' describes an outdoor team-building exercise held at the author's house. Despite having a large yard filled with obstacles, many teams were formed, and activities were conducted outside in the enjoyable fall weather. The event was described as very fun, with participants including both the 'Mavericks' and sponsors. Unlike conventional events typically hosted in hotel conference rooms, this gathering was unique and informal, creating an engaging experience before a conference. Participants also went out to eat, adding to the enjoyment of the occasion.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Managing a Large Team The chapter discusses the challenges and creative solutions in managing a large team. The author shares an idea about utilizing a new building that their church has opened, which is equipped with advanced facilities. Despite its unconventional nature, the suggestion reflects the church's support for community access to quality spaces.
• 11:00 - 12:00: Defining Clear Roles and Processes The chapter discusses the importance of defining clear roles and processes within an organization. It provides an example of how a church effectively utilized its spaces, such as the main auditorium, to host community events like a fire department's graduation ceremony. By getting key individuals like Troy and Emily on board, the organization was able to successfully organize the event, showcasing the importance of collaboration and clear organizational processes.
• 12:00 - 13:00: Continuous Process Improvement The chapter discusses the initial surprise and realization of an event happening at a church. It starts with a casual interaction during a game at someone's house and includes the discovery that a church was the venue for an upcoming event. The speaker shares their initial doubts and imagery associated with having an event at a church, indicating a mismatch between expectations and reality. The chapter may explore themes of assumptions, discovery, and adapting to unexpected settings.
• 13:00 - 14:00: Handling Client Requests Outside of Scope In this chapter, the narrator recounts a situation where they were surprised by a location that was being referred to as a church. They and their colleagues initially thought it was a traditional church, but upon searching images online, they realized it was more of an event venue. The narrator appreciated the venue for its suitability and comfort for the number of attendees they had.
• 14:00 - 15:00: Episode 100 Celebration and Sponsorship The chapter titled 'Episode 100 Celebration and Sponsorship' discusses a particular event where a surprise celebration was organized. The setting involved a perfect, cozy location, possibly small, for relaxing activities like tea, coffee, and lunch. There was mention of a concert as part of the celebrations. The surprise was unveiled on the last day at 4 PM, and everyone was directed into an auditorium, unaware of what was planned.
• 15:00 - 16:00: The Start of Collaboration with Agency Mav In this chapter, the narrative unfolds at an auditorium where a significant event took place. The atmosphere was filled with anticipation and excitement, as Troy and Adam Silverman, along with Johnny's son and another individual, delivered an incredible performance playing the drums. Their performance left a lasting impression, adding an unexpected but delightful twist to the event, making it an unforgettable experience for the attendees. The collaboration here marks a remarkable starting point with Agency Mav, characterized by energy, surprise, and enjoyment.
• 16:00 - 17:00: Importance of Aligned Vision and Values The chapter begins by reflecting on a significant moment during a conference, highlighting its impactful conclusion. It emphasizes how Troy, a key figure, truly shone in his performance, bringing a memorable and uplifting end to the event. This showcases the importance of having aligned vision and values, as Troy embodied the core message of the conference, captivating the audience with his unique and inspiring presence on stage.
• 17:00 - 18:00: Conclusion and Gratitude In this concluding chapter, the narrator reflects on a concert experience in which two different versions of a performance were presented. They express their admiration for a drummer, named Silverman, who they found to be exceptionally talented. The narrator recounts telling Silverman that he should pursue a full-time career as a drummer, considering his remarkable ability to energize and captivate the audience on stage. The chapter conveys a sense of gratitude and appreciation for the musical talent showcased during the event.

Leadership and Growth Secrets from E2M's Manish Dudharejia Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 when something goes wrong I tell team that okay come up with the three things which we could have done better from our in in order to not get into this situation right so we are literally you know changing mindset of our entire leadership team uh to think more positive and optimistic and constantly learning welcome to the agency Hour podcast where we help web design and digital agency owners create abundance for themselves their teams and their
• 00:30 - 01:00 communities this week we're joined by Manish dud Heria hope I got that right founder and CEO of e2m solutions e2m uh helps digital agencies solve bandwidth and capacity problems with white label services and our exclusive sponsor of the agency hour uh so it only made sense to have Manish join us this week as our 100th episode which is amazing in this episode we explore why leadership needs to own failures and pass the credit
• 01:00 - 01:30 which is much easier said than done we Define the fundamentals of creating processes that actually help you solve the problems that your agency experiences every day and we discuss problems with working outside of scope and how to avoid it as well as the challenges of keeping your team on track and consistently delivering high quality services as your team grows all that and much more I'm Johnny flash stay with us
• 01:30 - 02:00 [Music] Manish it's so great to see you how you doing Johnny I'm doing fantastic uh thank you for having me on the show again it's I'm excited to speak with you again oh man it was so great to have you uh and some of your team come out to mavcon uh here outside of Washington DC just uh man it was just last month um and I would just really enjoyed getting to hang out with you um your team all the fun that we had it was was just
• 02:00 - 02:30 really great absolutely you know uh it was absolutely a very unique experience uh I know we sponsored last year meon in San Diego but I wasn't there Kevin from our team who actually lives in San Diego he was there MH but this time you know we first time uh we iners attended the us meon obviously we were in Australia a few months back in Gold Coast uh but yeah so it was absolutely very unique
• 02:30 - 03:00 experience you know the moment we got into Fairfax uh and then kind of like reached to the hotel like you know from there we came to your house and yeah thank you for inviting us hosting us at your house it was fun to play the game so the beginning of Malon started very casually uh it didn't feel like we are at conference it feels like you know it's it's a g together of a community a member so that was a very allog together
• 03:00 - 03:30 different feeling mhm and yeah you know it was so much fun to have be at your house and and and I think the the highlighter of the entire uh event is like you know the actual event happened at the church right and which was very different experience right uh yeah where the venue was very unconventional and you know two of uh my colleagues came to the stage for the first time and did meon for the first
• 03:30 - 04:00 time and they also had a fantastic experience so it was absolutely great experience oh that's so great to hear for for our listeners that are listening in that maybe don't know all the details so mavcon is a three-time a year event that we have um kind of rotated around the world you know so that everybody can have the opportunity to come uh but it's for our Mavericks and uh you know some special guests where we basically just have an in-person you know two three day conference uh and and like you said I
• 04:00 - 04:30 think it's really more like a gathering of of kind of like-minded sharing ideas learning things uh very just sort of um practical and kind of where the rubber meets the road and we've got a number of amazing sponsors Manish who is one of them uh with e2m and uh we had a an event before the conference started that I hosted at my house um and we uh we did this out we had this guy come who has these amazing like laser tag uh kind of
• 04:30 - 05:00 gun things and and all the things and I have a big yard and so we had all this obstacles and different things and made teams and we were playing outside uh in the fall weather here in in the United States and it was it was so much fun and we and then we went out to eat and all the different things but it was great to host um both our our kind of Mavericks and our sponsors for that um event that was before the conference started at my house and then yeah we just uh we kind of did it unconventional usually we're in a hotel conference room room and you
• 05:00 - 05:30 know everything like that and I I had messaged the team way long time ago and I said hey I know this is crazy and like not what we to normally do but my church just opened this $24 million building that's brand new it has all this amazing space and AV and all these things and I was like what if we like had it at my church I know that's totally weird and it's not mavcon is not a church thing or anything like that but um our church has just been so great about making space available for the community and for
• 05:30 - 06:00 different organizations we just had our local fire department's graduation ceremony in our main Auditorium for like a thousand people and all these fire department graduates and like obviously that's not a church thing or whatever right but we have this uh a lot of amazing spaces at the church that can be used by the community and so the church was on board I got Troy and Emily on board with it and uh so it was really cool and then I guess the big surprise was that we were able to do a a
• 06:00 - 06:30 concert at the I was about to say that toward the yeah go ahead you can share yeah I think you know um I I I totally agree you know uh when actually you were at your house and you know playing that uh laser shooting game and and that's the time I got to know that the event is actually happening at church tomorrow and and then you know I had an image of church like okay are we seriously going to have an event at church and then I you know we purposely
• 06:30 - 07:00 didn't announce that part I I I thought so I thought so I'm like this is a huge surprise but then you know uh I was discussing with my colleagues and they actually pulled up images of a church on on Google and we were like no it's it's not that kind of church it's actually a really it looks like an event venue yeah and I feel like the space was perfect uh for the audience uh the number of people we had it was AB absolutely comfortable
• 07:00 - 07:30 perfect you know small czy place perfect we had a great uh place outside MH for hangout tea coffee lunch and I think the concert yeah so you know uh that was a huge surprise it was on the last day when uh they had planned the surprise and it was kind of like evening at 4: and we were told to you know go into an auditorium uh we had had no idea what's
• 07:30 - 08:00 going to happen right and we were sitting in the auditorium and and troyed Troy and Adam Silver man he was like you know playing the drums and there was someone also uh and it was Johnny's son as well you know uh there were four people on the stage and and they absolutely roke the stage it was like an amazing amazing experience uh it was absolutely completely unexpected uh but we truly enjoyed and and that was like
• 08:00 - 08:30 you know uh that was kind of like you know the moment the time when we felt like okay this is the canot could not think of better way to end the conference and the behind the event right and Troy truly performed like the Rockstar rockar and Troy came out right yeah Rockstar came we saw a uh you know absolutely a different version of Troy on the stage yeah yeah uh in the first
• 08:30 - 09:00 half we saw a different version in the second half in Auditorium we saw a different version and and and un Silverman you know it was hard to he's so amazing so amazing and after the concert you know I I actually told him that why are you in this industry why why are you not being you know why are you not uh in a in an industry where you are you should be a full-time drummer yeah and it was like absolutely The Rock the stage and they
• 09:00 - 09:30 perform like like rock stars oh that's so great yeah we it was probably only like maybe six weeks before mavcon and I messaged and I was like Hey gu and we had kind of joked about like hey we should do some songs but like I knew if it just was like joking about it it wouldn't actually happen so I was like Hey guys do we want to do like put a band together and and I knew Adam Silverman who lives in Nashville who's recorded on all these albums as a studio drummer like he is a professional drummer disguised as a web agency owner um and I know had had done a lot of like
• 09:30 - 10:00 you know concerts and guitar and singing and stuff and I played bass guitar and I my son is a very talented uh keyboardist he's only he's only 15 and he's just he's so so good um and so I was like we just really need like maybe an electric guitar player that I could probably recruit from one of my friends in town um and so we put a band together we were emailing and slack messaging different song ideas and keys that we would do them in and which version of a recording we would do and then everybody pretty
• 10:00 - 10:30 much like practiced on their own uh and then we came together and we rehearsed like just for one evening before that um and I had programmed lights and video content and all the different Haze and all the things um and so it was it was a pretty it was a pretty big production for our small group of you know folks that were there but it was a lot of fun what do you have described in what actually happened it was way more fun than what you described so oh good good yes sorry I think uh idea is that uh you
• 10:30 - 11:00 know if someone have recorded that uh on their phone I'm sure Max would have recorded that we should actually put a video on Select Community and on you know agency M's Facebook page so yeah know members or anyone who haven't attended the event they can see what they actually missed there yeah yeah it was so much fun it was so great and and and the content of the the the conference was so great you know I think
• 11:00 - 11:30 from thees um you know different like Thomas one of our coaches talked like the the I mean the I was just so inspired by the processes that he put in place he got his whole team around it I think we have a one of our previous episodes just has gone into this in a lot more detail when I was talking with him but just the way that he got his team around and kind of sharing some of that behind the scen stuff was so great um Jen talking about goals and uh kind of where you want to go you know 5 10 years from now which
• 11:30 - 12:00 most agency owners can't think five or 10 days from now five or 10 minutes from now um you know but to think like further out of like why am I running this business and what am I trying to do and where do I want to go and what's the purpose behind all this and then kind of backing that all down to like the here and now and just so many great uh sessions and stuff that were just really impactful Troy always delivers amazing you know Keynotes and stuff with uh talking about Ai and all that kind of how that can be used and just kind of to to grow your agency was incredible um so
• 12:00 - 12:30 I wanted to if we could while you were here um I know last time you were on the the the uh agency hour we talked about team and you have an amazing team at e2m uh what is it like 900 team members some some crazy number of team members right it's it's 180 people 180 people oh my goodness see it grew since the last time I talked to Manish uh and it's just amazing and I wanted to if I know we talked about team and hiring and you
• 12:30 - 13:00 gave some great I I don't know if I've told you this Manish but um when we were on the agency hours probably like maybe a year ago or it was a while ago we were talking about the team and you had just taken your team to uh I think it was Bali or somewhere where you were doing this amazing trip and you had a video and I was just like I was just blown away yeah um and I was just so inspired which was amazing um but you had said something on that which I've used in a number of talks and I've done my best to
• 13:00 - 13:30 give you the credit but you said something like um leadership needs to I can't remember own the failures and pass the credit or something like that and and that just like really stuck with me and I've used it in a number of different talks that I've given because I just feel like that is like where the rubber meets the road um and I had a recent like test of uh how much I really uh you know was was holding to that or not recently because I had been at a all
• 13:30 - 14:00 day leadership thing offsite with a bunch of Business Leaders um and I came back to the office at the very end of the day and my phone and everything's blowing up from a client who uh we were had just built their website they've been a client for a long time we just built a new website for them and we had launched it over top of their wrong website like they had two different websites and we built a new one for one and we replaced we replaced the other one by mistake um and of course I had
• 14:00 - 14:30 been out of the office other people were doing all the things whatever and I couldn't I didn't have any answers I didn't know how we had made that mistake I didn't know how quickly we were going to be able to get it back like I had just been gone and I didn't know and like my I kept and he and like I realized I just needed to call the client and say it was my fault you know take basically own the own the failure and and just and like it was the most hardest thing thing that I've like had to do in a while but like the client was
• 14:30 - 15:00 so appreciative that I just called him as the owner that I took the ownership that I said I'm going to give you an update every I don't know if I said 15 or 30 minutes I'm gonna I'm going to send you a note every 15 or 30 minutes till this is resolved and let you know the status and I mean we got it up I think pretty quickly within an hour hour and a half whatever we had restored everything back and got it to the right place but it was one of those things where I was like oh man like Manish said like leadership needs to own the failures and like here I was having to deal with that not really wanting to you
• 15:00 - 15:30 know no I think it's very uh it's very important similar thing happened recently uh you know with one of our clients as well where uh the scope was not clear and kind of like you know we quoted without uh looking at the actual design and then the plug-in was uh suggested by the team without actually looking at the design and then later we realized that you know uh the plugin has its own limitations so we will not be able to meet the 100% design and the
• 15:30 - 16:00 final output and literally like you know we decided to go on a call and you know same way client really appreciated client is actually from Australia and he really appreciated that uh and and I literally like you know after that we emailed him that how can we make sure that we don't get into the same situation again and we understand that we should not have quoted this project without having 100% Clarity so uh you know long story short I want to add one more thing that what we started doing uh
• 16:00 - 16:30 at e2m as well when something goes wrong I tell team that okay come up with the three things which we could have done better from our end in order to not get into this situation right so we are literally you know changing mindset of our entire leadership team uh to think more positive and optimistic and learning from you know constantly learning uh from every single mistake
• 16:30 - 17:00 right so I want to bring a court I mean uh unfortunately you all know like Charlie passed away yesterday uh I personally have learned a lot from his wisdom right and is his favorite quote is like you know uh the life is kind of like you know it's all about like learn learn learn right so I think that life properly lived is just learn learn learn all the time right so uh I always let our team know that when
• 17:00 - 17:30 something goes wrong let's not play a blame game right uh let's first on the failure and see like hey what we could have done better in order to avoid this situation so I think you know that adds up to like it it requires a mindset that yeah first you own the failure and then you know and then only you can learn from that otherwise you cannot learn from that and think when you demonstrate that as a
• 17:30 - 18:00 leader that you're willing to own a failure even though like you didn't push the wrong thing or you didn't you know whatever and and in this case I hadn't done anything with with that and we had documentation in place and like there was a number of things that got overlooked that made that resulted in the mistake but um I think it then is easier for your team to take the ownership when they fail because this team member was very on my team was very much like I just totally messed this up and this is why I thought it was supposed to be this one and and he and it's not like he just was not paying
• 18:00 - 18:30 attention like he had a reason why he thought it was supposed to be the way that it was but he owned it in the end um and then I think also by letting your team fail and not like permanent fail like you know fire them then it allows them to like experiment and get better and stuff because if everybody's afraid of like oh if I make a big mistake like I'm out then like no one's going to take any risks no one's going to take any ownership no one's going to like you know want do the things because they know if they make a big mistake like
• 18:30 - 19:00 they're gone but instead if it's like you said like a culture of learning and how can we get better at this and stuff then like everybody just kind of like Rises up I feel like yeah yeah it's uh I know I whenever every time we have a uh you know discussions going on around our leadership team and entire team we all we always tell them that it's okay to fail it's okay to make mistakes as long as you are not making the same mistake again right right right and as long as you are learning from that I think it's
• 19:00 - 19:30 super super important that every mistake you make uh you think like you paid a price to learn something new uh while making that mistake right so that is super super important you are absolutely right that you know otherwise they wouldn't learn and otherwise uh you know as a leader you will not uh pre up your time because you will be always
• 19:30 - 20:00 afraid to pass on the responsibility while thinking that what if team might make a mistake right in that you know Vicious Circle you gets into and that never lets you free up your time yeah yeah and that just ties perfectly into what I wanted to ask you about on this episode because I was I was so excited to get to come on with you again and uh especially after we had just spent time together in person and um I I wanted to ask you about this
• 20:00 - 20:30 because I I feel like even though I I try to my team and I were trying to you know we're just a team of 20 or whatever and your team of 180 um and all that but still we we're trying to figure out like processes because just like you we have a lot of people doing the same thing you know different designers designing different projects different managers managing different projects different all the things and you guys have some amazing uh White Label services that you offer to agencies with uh development and design and copywriting and all the different things that you guys are doing um I wanted to just ask you about how
• 20:30 - 21:00 you basically keep the quality high with so many different people doing so many different things and I and I kind of know the answer so I'm kind of trying to give you a softball pitch here but I would love to just hear like things that you've learned about processes and kind of getting people all to do the same job in a in a similar Manner and that kind of thing yeah absolutely uh I think you know people think that running this kind of organization big team and being in
• 21:00 - 21:30 the position of uh you know as a leader you know as a CEO of running this kind of organization is fun it's not fun actually uh uh you need a high pain tolerance uh you know what happens you know with this kind of big team we have a like structure there's a a senior leadership team uh there a second level leadership team right
• 21:30 - 22:00 and lot of times most of the times actually it happens that you don't get to work on the problem which you want to work on but you actually have to work on the problem which company is going through right because uh at at think like that at at my position uh I pretty much get all the problems filtered which have not been solved so mhm mhm on my table there are only worst
• 22:00 - 22:30 problems because they already figured out and they already solve the problems which they were able to do it but if something is coming to me which means they were not able to figure it out MH and and then obviously there is a bunch of worse problems right M and when you get into this situation uh you know as as a leader you always think like okay I really want to work on a things which are working really well and so we can
• 22:30 - 23:00 10x on that I don't want to work on things which are not working well right MH so but however you know as a leader what you really have to do is although you don't like it but you literally have to stop working on doing things which are really working well instead you have to shift your focus on making things right which are not actually going really well in the organization right so I think you know uh one of the first
• 23:00 - 23:30 steps about creating the process uh is making sure that there are clear roles and responsibilities defined at your organization right so one uh rule we have in our organization that there are no uh two people should not be doing the same thing so there should not be overlapping of roles and responsibilities otherwise there will be always a
• 23:30 - 24:00 possibility of you know uh getting into a situation uh where there is a conflict right I like and you don't necessarily mean two people not doing the same thing you mean kind of two people were I think what you're saying is two people not responsible for one thing right because then nobody knows owns nobody knows who owns it right yes in that case it's very hard to find who is going to take the full accountability right right that is a very first thing second thing you know
• 24:00 - 24:30 when you run into any problem uh which you are seeing commonly coming up again and again again and again across the different or across the different you know Departments of your company that's the number one priority uh you should create a process around that right so and then uh I think you know we always think like okay we need to have a process for everything but I would say if you want to have the processes and build start building the
• 24:30 - 25:00 processes make sure you start building processes around your top level problems which your organization currently going through or which might go through when you scale because if you are going through a certain problems and when you grow the problems is going to go even bigger right so you want to fix the problem right now while making sure Define the processes while defining processes there are two things right uh you want to have the key stakeholders while defining the processes mhm so uh
• 25:00 - 25:30 when we Define and I love to be a part of that as well so we have like couple of people visit brainstorm that okay let's put everything what we know we record a zoom meeting we when we start discussing the okay this is the process we need to Define we start a zoom recording we start like AI summary and then you know we put that transcript into AI tool that gives us the process uh and then someone goes through that to make sure that you know the process
• 25:30 - 26:00 outlines everything what we discussed so because you really want to make sure that the stakeholders the people who are going to follow the process are part of creating the process because they are the people who are going to use the process it's not me it's not like you know uh you as a leader who is actually going to work on the ground right so in that case they are on the same page and they can think of everything uh they can
• 26:00 - 26:30 think of and that is something what makes them also excited to follow the process because they are on the same page right so one of the common mistakes I see uh you know a lot of leaders make it organ at a large scale or they are growing they want to define the process for the problem they want to solve not the problem organization has right they want to just create the process for the sake of uh making their organization look like
• 26:30 - 27:00 more organized but you might sometimes do not need a tons and tons of processes so it's super important to know that you only have the processes which solve your day-to-day problems right and which kind of helps you automize things and kind of like uh make sure that you going avoid any sort of like you know uh situations uh which put uh projects into escalation or there is
• 27:00 - 27:30 conflict of interest or there is like accountability issue right so it's kind of like you want to have the process of something which you are using on a daily basis you don't want to have a process which is sitting there but it is not being used on daily basis right which is super super important so I think these are the things you know we make sure while creating process and also one of the most important things is like uh that process has to be constantly
• 27:30 - 28:00 evolved and updated based on your experiences you cannot have the same process forever right uh it's kind of like the process you have for 100 people company would not work for 200 people company right and and same goes on so it's super important that you know we are we kind of like you know at least update that every quarter uh and right now also we are in the process of creating a lot of new processes to facilitate our future growth uh but yeah
• 28:00 - 28:30 I think you know that's what my uh thoughts are uh you know for the uh processes where yeah make sure that you know uh you have a clear roles and responsibility there is no overlapping of responsibility you add it to two different people uh people are involved in creating the process who are actually going to follow the processes and processes you need to have only for the things which you are you know which are your biggest problem and which you can
• 28:30 - 29:00 foresee and which solve your day-to-day problem and which can be actually used on a day-to-day basis uh and then you know processes need to be constantly wed yeah oh it's so good so so much gold right there I was if you heard my keyboard clicking I was taking notes on your on your advice because it was just so good um one thing one more thing I want to ask you about this while we're on this and we can go to something else but um I know a lot of agency owners and I I honestly find myself struggle with this sometimes too where you know we try
• 29:00 - 29:30 to Define and this is kind of more with like support plans and some of the different plans that I'm sure you guys offer and that we offer you know you try to Define like for for me if it's a care plan or an SEO plan or a social media marketing plan whatever the plan is we try to Define like this is what's included with the plan right and it might be a certain number of time it might be certain types of tasks it might be certain deliverables whatever the things are and then you know inev there's somebody that wants something that's just a little bit outside and I
• 29:30 - 30:00 think the temptation of it is that like we could probably do the thing right it's not that we don't know how to do the request or we don't have the ability or the technical knowhow or whatever but it's kind of outside this box that we've defined and if it was just one client asking for one thing outside of the box and that's all that it ever was it wouldn't be a big deal right you would just help one client it' be done but when you have hundreds or thousands of clients you know and you're even if you only have 20 or 30 or 40 clients and
• 30:00 - 30:30 you're a smaller agency or freelancer and you're just kind of starting out like pretty soon what you find is that like oh well we did this one exception for this person we did this exception for this person and you know all these different things where it just starts to feel like Well the box is supposed to be here but now we're solving all these other things that like take extra time and maybe we don't have as well defined or not all the team knows how to do that extra thing or whatever and so I would just love to hear from you you like as you've kind of as you all have crafted
• 30:30 - 31:00 plans and boundaries and what's in and out like what have you found like how do you I I don't want to say hold the line but like how do you hold the line you know or or where do you absolutely I I see exactly what you say and we have faced this situation you know when we were kind of like small in the size uh Team used to facilitate just to make client's experience really great but then you know we started realizing that we have to draw a brry you have to draw a line right uh that's where the process
• 31:00 - 31:30 come comes into picture right I think it's a great client experience but then you see that it is not sustainable one of the problems uh happens with that when you do it once your client will always expect it in the future then you cannot stop right so instead if you just draw a line from the very at least uh I would say that two things if you are doing it for your
• 31:30 - 32:00 existing clients make sure you make the price change and include that and at least stop doing it for your all your new cles so at least you are not setting the wrong expectation from that right and start incorporating that thing in your you know package and and increase your pricing accordingly and even if they are coming up with something outside of that you have to say no you have to say I wish we could do it but that's something out of the plan if you
• 32:00 - 32:30 would like to do it we'll be happy to provide you an additional quote or we can you know create your package accordingly where we'll include that as well because that way client will also appreciate but uh you have to absolutely draw a line so the best way to solve this problem is uh communicate very clearly to your client if you are doing because you cannot say we won't do it from you know next month onwards and they were like you know you guys were doing so you know till dat and what happened now so you want to communicate
• 32:30 - 33:00 very softly that hey you know we have been doing this it was not a part of that we would continue like do it but in order to do so we are increasing our price and at least you know for new clients you want to absolutely uh set a process that this is the boundary uh you really want to set that's good that's good so yeah I think there can be a tendency of like the freelance or the agency right to just say like oh we'll just keep doing it or we'll just add that in or like we kind of make that sacrifice but I I like
• 33:00 - 33:30 your approach of saying like hey we can't do that but if it's something that you really want done you know we can we can charge us additional fee or put you on this higher plan or or whatever right so that there's compensation because what ha we both know what happens right when you do that nine out of 10 of them are like ah actually I really didn't need that thing I don't want to pay the extra money and like I don't want it that badly right every once in a while they'll be like I really want it badly and I'll pay the money but if you put that line up you're not quite saying no
• 33:30 - 34:00 because you're giving them the option to get it but because it's costing them more then they're going to they're gonna think twice or three times about it before they do it right and sometimes you know what happens that uh I have experienced that team actually uh went like you know above the above and beyond you know they went extra mile they did M something additional at without cost and something wrong goes and then client
• 34:00 - 34:30 fires back you know that you guys did and and the team's intenson in really good they actually went extra mile but that backfired and that's where team realized that oh we were trying to do it going above and beyond and that kind of backfired right and that's where the process is very important and that's where you know we let then we have to chime in our customer service team will chime in and let clients know hey you know a team
• 34:30 - 35:00 actually did it you know went extra mile and did it for you so you really want to make sure that uh if you are doing something uh which you are going extra above and beyond you want to let your client know that hey this is not included but I would be happy to do it one time right but we not be able to read next time something like that right depending on your relationship with line but you have to communicate if you are doing something extra and and and and
• 35:00 - 35:30 and the psychology of you know people and and obviously client is like if you do it once they would expect it you know a second time as well so I think the communication is super super important in these kind of situations that's so good that's why you have so many team members and clients because you you've done a good job at this um Manish this is episode 100 I can't believe it episode 100 of the agency hour um you
• 35:30 - 36:00 guys have been uh a longtime sponsor of the agency hour which we so appreciate um you just supporting this and helping agencies and Freelancers grow through all the content that we're putting out here um thank you I mean that's just incredible that's amazing no absolutely you know it is absolutely a special episode the 100th episode uh congratulations to you know agency mck you and Troy and Emily for uh you know
• 36:00 - 36:30 uh running this community and for this podcast where you know people learn a lot this is absolutely special and it's kind of like you know I feel like it's a coincidence privilege to be on 100s episode as a guest so it's absolutely privileged and uh like you know I was talking to you earlier as well uh uh we feel like we belong to this community this community has given us so much love and we have made like so many valuable connections uh we have met incredible
• 36:30 - 37:00 people in this community so uh we we absolutely feel great to be grateful to support you know this community support this podcast and it it feels like you know we are giving back to the community because we love agency ecosystem and yeah this where we kind of like feel like giving back to the community oh just it's we just so appreciate it I know I can say on behalf of the whole team like we we are just uh thrilled to have you as a partner and your support
• 37:00 - 37:30 and just I know for Troy and for me and for agency Mavericks and and everything just uh your support has been unwavering and uh it just means a lot to us um take us back if you would you probably know the story better than me um how how did this come about tell tell me tell us the story yeah it's it's actually interesting you know uh I think we underestimate still underestimate the power of cold email right uh so it was
• 37:30 - 38:00 like one and a half year ago uh you know I was randomly browsing late night and uh I actually came across agency MCS I saw the website I saw I I did a good amount of research probably for an hour or so around the same time when Troy stepped down as a CEO and Emily took it over around the same time and I I I saw you know uh about the community I I kind of
• 38:00 - 38:30 read more about Troy and I I really liked uh the the entire uh community and I'm like I think you know I want to connect with Troy I want to learn more about Community what this you know these people are doing and I literally you know it was like very late night and I did a cold email you know I set for some time I did like cold email to Troy that hey I love what you guys doing and I would love to see if there are any collaboration or opportunities how we
• 38:30 - 39:00 can support your community because I think we serve the same audience uh but at different capacity so uh I actually wrote this thing to Troy that you know I feel like what we do is an extension of what you guys do at agency Mavericks like you help agencies to grow and scale their operations and when they scale and grow the second the first problem they run into is bandwidth and capacity and that's what the problem problem we solve right so uh and it was in very open I
• 39:00 - 39:30 had no any idea what kind of collaboration it will look like uh right and and then TR replied to me on the very next day and I like I would love to have a conversation with you and and that's why that's the first uh our association started with like you know I was I recorded a podcast with him so that was the first thing we did and then we got to know more about that and then we uh talked about like okay we are doing this milon and and we did the first
• 39:30 - 40:00 milon sponsorship last uh you know here in San Diego yeah and then you know it was really great unfortunately I couldn't attend that uh and but one of our team members attended and we really liked the community and you know the vibe learning and then you know uh TR and I had a discussion we decided that okay okay we want to be an exclusive sponsor of all meon for entire 2023 so we were the sponsor for virtual happen in
• 40:00 - 40:30 February Gold Coast happen in May and you know this m in Virginia in October as well so yeah that's how uh you know we got connected and since we met couple of times uh in person uh we kind of like got to know each other a lot I think you know uh tro and I have a lot of similar thought process in in a lot of uh you know different ways uh so which is great I like you know uh how you guys are on
• 40:30 - 41:00 the community you know truly we truly believe in what agency M does know mission and vision and everything so that's how you know the collaboration uh started getting you know more and more uh we started collaborating more and more things and so a few months back you know uh we discussed that okay we want to be a exclusive sponsor of the podcast as that's how we became a podcast sponsor yeah I was going to say you know you're such your you and your team and
• 41:00 - 41:30 and the service that you guys provide is such an invaluable uh service for our whole Community because there's so many people that you know they they need some support but they don't need a full team member or they they don't want to try to figure out how to manage this you know teach this person or get make sure they're doing the right thing and so to just have someone like you all that can just come in and deliver a high quality service get up to speed very quickly right obviously like just the hit the gate running and and everything is just so invaluable I think for our audience
• 41:30 - 42:00 and so I'm just I'm just thrilled to uh to have you guys uh and be partnered with you guys and I have to ask you Manish you don't seem like the cold email type of person do you you send a lot of cold emails or was this sort of an out of the blue type of thing like unusual thing for you it was absolutely unusual uh it's just like I don't send tons of cold emails I truly do some research and I only do cold email when I
• 42:00 - 42:30 feel like okay you know this is something I want to get involed into right and I think you know when your reasons are aligned I think our reason is very much aligned what reason we have at e2m and what we an agency M say like helping agencies grow and scale right uh so which is the same reason we have then you feel like okay uh you want to work with these kind of people who have the similar reason and uh I I truly believe
• 42:30 - 43:00 like you know uh you are absolutely lucky if you get to work with people who has a similar thought process and similar vision and then your journey becomes so much fun and you your work doesn't feel like work it feels like you know magic to someone else but for you it's just a fun right so yeah yeah it wasn't like you know it's it was very unusual yeah yeah because I'm sure I'm sure you like me gets a ton of I get a ton of cold email but it's it's very
• 43:00 - 43:30 spammy and like hey you know we can we can improve the SEO on your website I'm like we do the SEO on our website and you haven't looked at it and you're just spending me some spam email or whatever the thing is right um and I'm sure you get a ton of those as well so uh that's why I just think it's really cool that one it's not the normal thing that you do and two that uh Troy responded you guys connected so quickly and stuff it was just it just really awesome yeah so um yeah and I think and I think like you said too you know having the similar
• 43:30 - 44:00 passion and values and you know we're we're serving the same Community but we're obviously offering different services and ways to help that community and so I just think there's so many things that align really well and um yeah it's just it's just just a joy to get to work with you guys so exactly that's the right word you picked up it's so much you know when we support this uh meon events when we see that agency owners are you know meeting each other
• 44:00 - 44:30 learning from each other and we feel so great and it's so much joy to see people learning from each other right uh and then you know people take away those learnings and Implement on their agency business and seeing them helping their agency grow and you feel like okay by supporting this kind of events you feel like you are contributing towards the agency success which is a great feeling yeah it is it is great and I I
• 44:30 - 45:00 personally love helping anyone you know if I can help someone shortcut and do something that I learned the hard way and and help them do it faster or better easier like it's just such a great feeling to be able to help others and I know you feel the same way absolutely so Manish thank you so much wow this is just such a treat to get to hang out with you I feel honored to get to to host the 100th episode with you um and I just I can't wait for us to get to hang out uh hopefully again real soon in person and I've already I already told
• 45:00 - 45:30 you preall what uh my my next outing is going to be when you're back in the state so we're gonna have an amazing time uh Max who's our producer uh got to go ATV four-wheel riding with us and so I'm gonna I'm gonna get you when you're back here and we're going to do it it's going to be awesome no I'm excited and you know thank you for having me on this uh special 100th episode I'm grateful for you know the connections grateful for uh uh you know to be a part of this agency mck community and I'm super
• 45:30 - 46:00 excited to see you next time in person thanks a lot Manish I'll talk to you soon thanks for listening to the agency Hour podcast and a massive thanks to Manish for joining us I always enjoy catching up with him and I'm so appreciative of everything that he and his team does at etm to support the agency Mavericks Community okay folks don't forget to smash that subscribe button and please share this with anyone who you think needs to hear it I'm Johnny flash let's get to
• 46:00 - 46:30 [Music] work