Creating a Vision and Culture to Attract Top Agency Talent with Danny Gonzalez

If you're struggling to build the agency or creating the agency vision that you want or having issues taking it to the next level, it could be a lack of clarity. In this episode, we’ll cover: #1 Struggle of building an agency team How to create and communicate your agency vision An on boarding process that sets expectations from day one. Today’s guest on the show is Danny Gonzalez, co-founder of Perception, the digital agency he and his partner built over the past fifteen years. Danny talks about how they communicate their vision in order to attract and keep top agency talent. You’ve probably seen some of Perception’s work if you’ve watched Iron Man 2 or Batman vs. Superman. They’re the team responsible for the fictitious technology your favorite superheroes use. They also develop real-world tech solutions (for us non-superhero types), such as UX and UI designs for automotive and technology companies. Pretty cool, right? #1 Struggle of Building a Team The most difficult thing about building a team is getting your established clients to trust them. When you operate solo or as a partnership for a long time, your clients are accustomed to leaning on you. Although when you’re growing it becomes necessary to hire. The challenge is getting your existing clients to transfer their trust in you to your new team. "Hiring the right people frees you up to concentrate on building the business instead of spending time in the weeds." The key is to start slow. It takes time to educate your current clients and have them accept a reorganization. Be sure display complete confidence in your new hires and over time your clients will feel it too. With new clients, it’s much easier. Get your team involved from the start. Let go of your need to be involved. Assure the client that you are available if there’s an urgent need or large scale issue but their day-to-day contact is super capable of handling everything. How to Create and Communicate Agency Vision For the first few years, it was just Danny and his partner. But as they started growing and hiring, they began making notes about what they wanted for their company - expectations, culture, values and goals. With an agency name of “Perception”, for them it is all about internal and external perception and the senses. Eventually these bullet point notes of expectations, values and vision turned into a handbook. The handbook is given to new hire candidates before they're even hired. It includes “rules” things like: We don’t bullsh*t each other. We don’t shoot down each other’s ideas. As well as the lifecycle of a project with a variety of scenarios that lead to different actions: “If this happens, then do X. If that happens, then do Y.” This is definitely something that has evolved over time and it’s only one part of Perception’s on boarding process. In my interview with a Zappos executive, she described their process for communicating Zappos Core Values. As a result, Zappos has increased productivity and creativity, reduced turnover and sick time and has topped many Best Workplaces Lists for several years. On Boarding Process That Sets Expectations from Day 1 In addition to receiving the handbook, the partners give new hires their “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” presentation. They walk through past projects, clients and situation to go over what went right, what went wrong, what was learned and why sometimes you just have to walk away (that's the ugly stuff :) ) Other aspects of on boarding include communicating very role-specific expectations. Setting very clear expectations from the start also sets your team up for success. Analytics Software to Boost Your Business Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies continuously monitor and report analytics. Define KPI’s based on your preferences and filters in this cloud-based software. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF. For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency. Creating the Best Agency Possible With Your Agency Vision Creating the agency vision you aspire to will allow you to create the best agency possible moving forward. To maintain this high level of authority and your reputation as an agency owner, you should review if there are other weaknesses within your agency that are causing challenges that need to be resolved. Don’t worry, i’m here for all the advice you need. From my own experience running my own digital agency as well as helping other digital agency owners, I can provide advice on many topics. It can be anything from changes you want to make within your established agency or if you are a new agency, you might be unsure of what the different phases of growth will look like. These are just a few topics I can give guidance on. If it's not the agency itself but your agency team, don't worry as I have you covered. Growing your agency team, I can show you how to recognise when to expand your sales team to perfecting your business strategy with creating a process for performance based pricing as well as keeping big clients happy. Ready to create something cool and want more advice? Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!