Speaker 1: Hey, in this video, I'm going to share my three step process that was absolutely fundamental and game changing in helping me scale my agency from zero to eighty million dollars and freed me from working inside my business. Let's jump right into it. How are you able to scale something that seems unscalable, which is you? How do you multiply you? And I think what happens is there's this bottleneck that most creative people get into. They have a secret sauce, a formula that's unbeknownst to them. They do things almost instinctively and they don't know how to translate or transfer this skill to other people. You heard me speak about this before, that entrepreneurship is really about being a teacher more than anything else. How you're able to teach your values, your principles, your decision making process, your creativity to others will determine how successful you are. One could argue that Steve Jobs did an excellent job at transferring and teaching because the company has run and has grown dramatically since his departure. Now, right now, if you were to pass, your company would fall apart instantly. You should really be looking at your number two and you should be teaching him. Here's how I make decisions. Shadow me. Let's have a conversation afterwards. And then you compare what he understands and sees and you try to get him and scaffold him towards how you see things and how you understand things. It's how I was able to build up my design studio with many creative directors. So from the jump, my whole modus operandi was to get other people to do what it is that I was doing. So I brought in pretty much raw talent that didn't really know how to do it my way. So I would say, OK, what is the single simplest thing that I can get you to do that would take a whole bunch of things off my plate? Well, I need you to iterate on ideas. I need you to research. And as they research, I would give feedback as to what it is I'm looking for. If they're designing and ideating, I would say, OK, look, here's what you did here. I'm going to tweak some things. I'm going to show you what it is that I'm doing so that you can then get there closer, faster, with less friction and less wasted energy. And when they get to a certain level, I look for people who have leadership skills, who are anticipating next steps and who want to communicate and be in front of the client. Those people get promoted to becoming from like a designer to an art director, an art director to becoming a creative director. With each leveling up, I add more things to them. Now, the way that I'm able to train people and help them to level up and simultaneously free myself from working in the agency is to use this model. I do, we do, you do. It's something that teachers use, but it's also applicable in business management. Now, let's break each of them down and you'll see how you can apply them. Phase one, I do. This is where you listen and learn. It's where someone will shadow you to see how you do things, to do it your way. They can look over your shoulder or you can sit down with them and do some hands on training. First off, you have to identify a potential candidate to take under your wing. Beyond possessing core skills, they need to be driven, proactive and to take direction well and be a good listener. If it's a coordinator that you're training to be a project manager or producer, they should be organized, have an eye for detail. So you don't have to stay up at night wondering if they forgot something and to be able to anticipate next steps and have excellent communication skills. If you're training a junior designer, they should already be proficient with the tools like the Adobe Creative Suite. These are easily and effectively learned by watching videos or taking some online courses. That's something I simply do not have the time to teach. They should also know design fundamentals, typography, composition, photo compositing and retouching. Now that you have the right person, have them shadow you. Watch how you work and to take notes. If it's a client situation, have them sit on a call. You might not even introduce them at this stage so they can just focus on listening in the shadow, if you will. Their primary job is to observe and instruct them not to say anything. Believe it or not, this will actually lower the anxiety. Afterwards, have a review, a debrief, if you will, where you can answer the questions, address what was said versus what was meant, outline any key strategies that you were using in your mind to explain the how and the why. So here's a specific example.

Speaker 2: Hey, before we go too far, I just have a really simple ask. I'm not here to sell you anything,

Speaker 1: but it would mean a lot to us just to help with the algorithm and how it runs. To leave a comment right now, you can type in what city you're from, type in your name, type in anything. It'll help other people find this video. And if you're truly getting value, don't forget to subscribe. Many years ago, Tom was a new graduate from ArtCenter and he entered our company as a junior designer. He had excellent skills. He could illustrate, he was well-rounded, could do 2D animation and even do 3D. He knew his art and design history, and he was very articulate, especially for a designer. He was hardworking and ambitious. And so in the I do stage, I would sit down next to Tom and watch him work for short periods of time. I was looking for any ways to speed up his workflow to see how he made decisions. I would share with him any keyboard shortcuts or ways of working more effectively and efficiently. I would also share with him additional resources or references he might not have been aware of, including some tricks and tips that would save him some time. Every once in a blue moon, I would have him scoot over so I can work next to him to do a quick hands-on demo. In this way, he can see how I actually do things, how I organize files and how I'm able to composite or lay out something more efficiently. Within a short period of time, he already mastered the way I like to work and had become very efficient himself and needed very little input in art direction from me. He was ready to join me on calls. So I invited him to where I told him again, take notes and just focus on listening. Afterwards, he asked me a bunch of questions. Then I would then ask him a few questions. And based on our conversation, I knew he was ready for the next step. Phase two, we do. This is the hybrid option, and it's between having your person say nothing and just watching you from them running completely autonomously. It's getting the person ready to take the lead to be the main point person. So in this case, you want to introduce the person to your client and invite them to ask questions, but not feel pressured to. And also to prepare for answering any specific project related questions that might come their way. And you want to be able to gauge their ability to work with clients, their general temperament and how they respond to adversity and any kind of tricky situations. So the example here is this. We were designing the main title design for the documentary film Dogtown and Z-Boys, directed by world famous skater Stacey Peralta. Tom was introduced as the art director and the title was important for him to get the respect from the client. So think about this. When the project was in a really good place after the initial design exploration was approved by Stacey, I did the official handoff saying that Tom would be the main point person moving forward. Now, your clients are naturally going to be concerned as if they're getting passed off to the B team. Your job is to reassure the client. I'm putting Tom in charge because I trust him. He's my right hand person and has been running this project behind the scenes the entire time. I want to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. And that's why I'm putting Tom in charge. If you have any questions whatsoever, please do not hesitate to call me. And do this two to three times on a few different projects with a few different clients. And if you feel really confident, it's time to migrate to the last phase. Phase three, you do. In you do, the person you are training is now ready to take the point position and should be the initial contact person along with your project manager. In this stage, they are given autonomy to make decisions in the best interest of the company and the client. It's important that you don't get involved because this will undermine their authority and get them to second guess themselves. Also, if the clients are aware that you're still involved, they'll just go around that person and talk to you directly, circumventing this entire process in the first place. To avoid micromanaging, my preference is to say to whoever I'm training, I'm here if you're stuck, but otherwise you don't need to check in with me at all. Instead, set up an optional once a week or even biweekly office hour where you're able to answer questions in case they need additional coaching, how to deal with things like pricing or any client challenges. So they're going to consistently need your training to level up. Example again, Tom and Stacy Peralta were talking to each other directly. They're behaving like good friends as a good client relationship should. It was a comfort level that was established. And Tom had built this rapport with Stacy. So essentially, I was able to get myself out and to manage other things and delegate more jobs and clients to Tom over time. The best case scenario for me is when the clients would forget who I was in the first place or they would go out of their way to tell me how much they liked working with Tom, saying he's a pleasure to work with. Now, in order for you to be a good entrepreneur, you have to be a great teacher. You have to be able to replicate, basically clone yourself, what you do, how you speak to clients and how you problem solve, do this the right way. And over time, people you hire will share your core values. Otherwise, you always be stuck at being company of one. Hope this video helps you to scale your business, capture back some of your free time and become a better leader and less of a micromanager. This is how you effectively stop working in your business and start working on your business. That's it for me. See you in the future.