One thing I’m working on doing is trying to be less of a technician and more of a business owner. I’m having trouble though because I’m a bit of a control freak and it’s, unfortunately, inhibiting my ability to meaningfully scale.
I’ve been running Facebook ads for about 9 years. The first ad I ran I remember was for a startup I was working on with some friends in college that was focused on hyper-local crowdfunding. I boosted a post and the rest really was history. Over the years I like to think I’ve gotten at least alright at this having been a part of projects such as:
-Taking a song to #1 Global Viral on Spotify
-Working with Fortune 500 companies
-Working with 10+ Agencies in a media buying role.
-Working with billion dollar DTC brands.
You get the idea.
So the thing is that I kind of muddled around for a few years having these cool flash in the pan moments, but never getting meaningful traction. Recently though I managed to niche down and I’ve found something that has people really aggressively pursuing working with me. Product market fit (or service market fit in this case) really does have a totally different feel to it. Sales are easier, the value prop just clicks with people, it’s smooth sailing. The thing is though that despite calling myself an agency for years and having a handful of team members here and there I’ve never meaningfully run an organization. My lack of process is showing.
My current focus is setting up process, not just to get the work done, but to do it in a way where I can meaningfully transfer my skills while also giving people the room to learn and do the work in their own style and with their own approach. It’s difficult, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. To me, it’s about following our values and creating systems that re-enforce those values in smart ways that also lessen the workload in the aggregate. I’m still figuring these things out but my 2020 goal is to not be running the day to day on any ad account and rather acting in the “senior” role advising and meeting on all our accounts. At this point in the game I think it delivers better outcomes for clients and lets me do what I do best which is collaborate and mentor on a high level. I’m starting to take the steps to get there, but it’s a long road.