0:00:00 - (Alane): Welcome to Automate your Agency. Every week we bring you expert insights, practical tips, and success stories that will help you streamline your business operations and boost your growth. Let's get started on your journey to more efficient and scalable operations.
0:00:18 - (Micah): All right, so in today's episode, we have a special guest, Beau Cunningham, who has been on our team for, I don't even know, Beau. Four years.
0:00:29 - (Beau): Four years.
0:00:30 - (Micah): Few years. Three years. Three to four years.
0:00:33 - (Beau): Three to four years. We'll say that.
0:00:35 - (Micah): Yep. And has kindly edited most of the Automate your agency podcast episodes. So he has heard all the mess ups that Alane and I have and he kindly removes most of them.
0:00:47 - (Beau): There's some good ones. There's some good ones out there.
0:00:50 - (Micah): So, yeah, so Alane is out this week speaking all over the west coast, into Utah, jet setting everywhere. Speaking in front of. I talked to her yesterday, I think one of her larger audiences, over 600 people.
0:01:05 - (Beau): Super cool. That's awesome.
0:01:07 - (Micah): Yeah. Yeah. So today I thought it'd be fun. Since you have heard so much about what we've spoken about and been in the mix of actually being part of all these things that we talk about and implement for ourselves and help run our team, I thought it'd be cool to like jump on and just have a conversation about, you know. Well, I guess even before we get into that, you and I were talking the other day and you're like, dude, I was listening to this podcast while I was editing it and then I put some stuff in place and it works and it's awesome.
0:01:40 - (Micah): So I thought it'd be cool to chat about that.
0:01:42 - (Beau): Absolutely. No, I'm. I'm game for that. That sounds great.
0:01:45 - (Micah): Cool. It's been a couple weeks since we talked about that. Honestly, I can't remember what it was that you said you put in place.
0:01:53 - (Beau): Yeah, so the first one was actually the Slack notifications and email notifications.
0:01:58 - (Micah): Right.
0:01:58 - (Beau): Because as we get into our days, you know, it gets so loud with the notifications and you know, the curiosity is always there of how does everybody else deal with all that noise. And I'm typically the person, I just leave mine wide open. You know, with the exception of like ClickUp and stuff like that. I keep those down because I'm in the system so much. But with Slack and, you know, email and things like that, I'm constantly having bubbles pop up or pings.
0:02:24 - (Beau): And listening to that episode, I was like, you know what? I'm going to try that. And I've got to tell you that it has made a huge impact on My day, I'm not feeling pulled in 50,000 directions. I kind of fabricate my own focus time, which is really important. So, you know, being able to do that and actually have the opportunity to focus on a specific task, follow it through to the end, and then go back and take care of whatever messages or emails I've received has just been great.
0:02:53 - (Micah): Yeah. Do you have any others that are top of mind?
0:02:56 - (Beau): I got plenty, man. So one of them, big one, is delegation. I have a really bad habit of when a task comes down the pipe, I grab it and say, I got this one, and I run with it. You know, when I'm editing and you guys are talking through things, they're reminders. I need to let go of some things. I need to allow my team that we've put in place to do what they're best at and, you know, give them the work, let them produce it. I can be there to support them. And that was one of the big episodes for me, is the delegation piece.
0:03:26 - (Micah): So, Beau, as you were going through that, it's interesting because internally, when we manage our teams, like you and I and Alane work together a lot, and so it's not like this is the first time you're hearing things when you're editing the podcast, like, oh, crap, I should probably delegate. Right. We're constantly honing and trying to figure out better ways to do things internally for ourselves.
0:03:51 - (Micah): What I'm. What I think is interesting, because I know this happens to me, is somebody will tell me something, and then I'll be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Cool, I need to do that. But then when I'm in a different mindset and I hear it again, oh, yeah. And it's almost like that extra kick in the butt to the situation that's happening.
0:04:13 - (Beau): That's exactly the situation. Our business moves at a pretty fast pace. We have to. Within client services. You know, we're. We're trying to meet the needs and the outcomes that our clients are wanting. But it is easy for us to just get wrapped up in the task and wrapped up in the moment, and we just kind of get into that mindset. So we've got to do what we got to do. But watching the episodes and editing the episodes, it. It catches me in a different headspace. I'm focused on just that.
0:04:39 - (Beau): Instead of it just kind of being a passing discussion, I can actually take it, commit it to memory, and find meaningful ways to implement it.
0:04:47 - (Micah): I mean, I wonder if there's not something here. It's really interesting. This thread that we're on right now, because you said it really well just a second ago, is not in a passing moment. And that tends to be kind of what happens. Something isn't right or we're implementing something new. To me, I'm going to create something and I want everybody to know about it on our team right away. And here's the new way to do it, and then we try to implement it right away.
0:05:15 - (Micah): But it's hard to remember as a leader that everybody else is not just sitting there waiting for the new updated process to head their way so that they can implement it right. They're trying to book meetings with prospects and handle client requests and produce the actual work. And so I wonder if there's not. Not a kind of interesting takeaway or something we could even try internally, which is how do we recreate that space for somebody to truly absorb what we're talking about?
0:05:47 - (Beau): I mean, I definitely think there's something there. Something that we've been doing internally more recently is that whenever we do come up with ideas, we are like, you're saying we're creating those loom videos and we're assigning a task to a team member. If it's something that everybody needs to watch, you're assigning that task. We are kind of fabricating that in the sense that we can give them a task and say, hey, when you're done with your focus work, move over to this. And I'm hopeful that that does give us what we're talking about right now, gives them the space to reflect on it, to absorb it in a way that is going to make the most sense to them and not feel like they're rushed to do it or rush to just accommodate whatever the ask is.
0:06:24 - (Micah): Yeah. And I would even think Elena and I might be recording an episode, a whole episode on this topic in general. But loom videos, phase one, internally, we're taking it another step further with AI agents, right. To say take a loom video transcript and auto create an online course, which, sure, online courses typically used for marketing, but how better to train our team and give them that focus space?
0:06:51 - (Micah): Like we're like kind of connecting these dots here to say cool. Instead of just watch a loom video in your spare time, get in the mindset that you're going to go through a five section course with maybe 11 lessons and learn something new or, you know, just absorb and have that moment and that time in that space. I think, you know, an online course is a different experience than watching a loom video.
0:07:18 - (Micah): So our Hypothesis is that our training is going to get a lot easier and a lot more effective because we're breaking it into bite sized pieces. It's multiple loom videos. We've got a visual aspect, we've got a written aspect, we've got the video aspect for all the different types of learners. And then we're also pairing that with a knowledge base record. So anytime we have this question asked again, we go to the knowledge base like we've talked about in previous episodes.
0:07:45 - (Micah): But now it's pointing towards a much more comprehensive resource for our team to learn from rather than just, you know, I think there's still a time and place for simple sops and simple videos for quick answers, but to, to learn and absorb some like, like staying on the topic of delegation, that's it's a challenge, like an online course to walk through some best practices.
0:08:11 - (Beau): I think that's a great idea, you know, and I think it's when you have that kind of sit down moment of diving into the content, it does provide you the ability to stop, listen and even, you know, formulate questions of your own and think beyond what you're seeing on the page or on the screen. And I think that I'm hopeful that in doing that internally we're going to find that the innovation within our team will increase as well.
0:08:36 - (Beau): And because they're not going to just be confined to, hey, here's the video. This is what we're doing. It's putting them in that mindset of learning and then extending that learning to what they're doing on a daily basis, I'm sure is going to generate additional ideas. So I'm excited to see how that turns out.
0:08:53 - (Micah): Yeah, I am too. So one of the things, and this just popped into my head as you were, as you were chatting Beau that you put in place recently that I thought was not just did. I think that is super effective, but we're seeing the results of it being super effective is every Monday you launched a dev team. Not really a stand up, just more of a. I don't know what you would call it. A get together, A gathering.
0:09:18 - (Beau): It's a gathering. It's kind of just like a, it's an opportunity for our team to get together. I mean we're, we're all remote, right. And so it's easy for us to be, to feel like we're living in our own little worlds and feel disconnected and you know, this kind of piggybacking on another episode that you guys did, which is finding ways to get the People that are doing the work to be the ones that are kind of driving the success of what's going on in the innovation, the ideas and getting everybody involved, making them understand how they're valued. You know, I think it's been really successful. Seeing and hearing from the team and understanding what maybe their challenges are that I'm not seeing. They're running into challenges that they're largely just being quiet about, you know, and it brings us all together.
0:10:03 - (Beau): And what we've noticed though, is that we're kind of crafting a culture within that team, even though we are remote, and it's allowing them to open up more. We have some team members that are flourishing within that and they seem to be really opening up. I'm learning more about them. We're all learning more about each other and we're more openly sharing ideas and how we can pass our knowledge to each other as we work on different projects. So it's been great. It's been really wonderful.
0:10:32 - (Micah): Yeah. I think a key takeaway for me and watching you spearhead this is, I, I know personally and I've shared this before on the podcast is just, I'm kind of terrible at the team building events. Like, I hear that and I cringe a little bit. I'm like, I don't know, can we just get the work done? Like, we've got a lot of work. Let's just knock it out. But seeing this from the outside and then getting invited in to be part of this meeting after you established what's working, it's. It's great.
0:11:05 - (Micah): And I think you're speaking to such a people side of this that, you know, some of the outcomes, like even today we had one of our team members who maybe never or very, very rarely would speak up and offer ideas and tidbits and share information in a Slack channel that's designed specifically for that, to try to unite, so unite the development team. So in the past it's been like, hey, can you do this? And we just asked them and it try to encourage them verbally to get more involved and like, hey, don't worry, you know, that's what this is for kind of stuff.
0:11:46 - (Micah): And it all fell flat. It just didn't work until you started this meeting. And I, I think it created those bonds and those connections between the team members to potentially feel comfortable and then get out there and actually take action, which worked away way better than just us saying, hey, can you do this?
0:12:07 - (Beau): Absolutely. You know, we, we were kind of watching how the team interacted and how they worked. And this provided us with a, a way to, to get them involved and to feel like they were a part of the greater thing. And what's been great about it is it's not just about getting in there and working. It's a place where we, you know, we brought you in for learning. Right. We're doing so much and advancing so many of the different services that we have for our clients that we're using as at a time for Micah to show and tell new technologies that we're working with or, you know, a new solution that he's come up with. But it's also given us an opportunity to laugh together as a team and to just have fun and talk about random things. You know, we take that first little bit of the meeting to just talk random stuff, just a couple of minutes and then we move into just what we did the previous week, what we learned, any shout outs we have, and then we dive into any updates. So it really, it allows us to bring everybody together. We talk about business related things, we talk about, you know, specifically dev related topics.
0:13:09 - (Micah): One thing that I think is important to point out is I've been in meetings like this in the past where the same person does all the talking. They're the host, they're the owner of the meeting. And it's almost like an ego trip to say, I'm going to just expel all these words to all the meeting participants so they can learn what's unique about this one that you set up and how you steer it is. It's. Everybody is balanced. The shout outs are heartwarming.
0:13:40 - (Micah): When you hear how people are giving shout outs to other people on the team and why and what that meant to them. And a popcorn setup. So once somebody starts, then they choose who to popcorn over to be the next person to speak. And it's not this force led thing. And everybody's just sitting there bored with glazed eyes.
0:14:00 - (Beau): Right.
0:14:00 - (Micah): Everybody's engaged totally.
0:14:03 - (Beau): It's been really good. And the entire team is asking each other questions now. There are times that they'll use their time to ask a question to the remainder of the team. Have you guys encountered this? You're building a solution. What should I do? I'm experiencing this challenge. This is where I've gotten with it. Where do I go from here? The collaboration has just gone through the roof and I can tell that everybody is starting to see each other's strengths.
0:14:25 - (Micah): Yeah, I mean, this has been so effective. We've implemented it on the account management side as well.
0:14:32 - (Beau): Yeah.
0:14:33 - (Micah): So we do this Monday morning. So it's the dev meeting and then the account management meeting, with a little bit of time in between. Sometimes if the dev meeting doesn't. Micah's portion of the dev meeting doesn't go too long with show and tell, but it's. It's also. We're seeing a return and major benefits on that side. What are the common things that clients are asking for? What are the new solutions that we're exploring?
0:14:59 - (Micah): How do we fill our backlogs? All of these questions that are potentially business obstacles when it comes to training and communication and implementation. We're nipping all of that in the bud. And in 60 minutes every Monday, we're building the relationships between the team members, we're introducing new things, we're trying new things out. We're. It's basically like a enhanced retrospective.
0:15:25 - (Beau): It is, it is. And I think, you know, it's really. It's creating transparency at every level. I think that's the biggest piece is it's. It's allowing all of us to understand what each other's going through. I mean, the account management one, I have different clients than you have. You know, same with anybody else that's running account management. And it's interesting to hear how we're all approaching similar situations. We very much encounter the same type of business challenges with most of our clients, you know, and it's interesting to air it out and, you know, everybody understand what's been going on on both side of the house, or what Beau's working on or what Micah is working on.
0:16:02 - (Beau): It's just a good way for us to feed off each other's knowledge and kind of the vibe that we're getting as far as how we're. We're presenting ourselves with. To our clients.
0:16:10 - (Micah): Yeah. And I have to admit, I look at those two meetings and I'm like, oh, two hours of meetings on Monday.
0:16:18 - (Beau): Yeah.
0:16:18 - (Micah): But I have to get over that because the value is huge. They're fun to go to. It's improving all sides of the business. So. Hey, Beau, big shout out to you for getting all this set up.
0:16:33 - (Beau): Hey, I appreciate that. Happy to do it.
0:16:37 - (Micah): All right, well, I think that's probably a pretty good place to stop with this episode. It's been awesome having you on here and actually having, you know, we talk all. All day anyway, but. But it's fun knowing that you're going to be in the podcast rather than just behind the scenes now.
0:16:55 - (Beau): Absolutely.
0:16:55 - (Micah): Is it going to be weird editing your own voice?
0:16:58 - (Beau): Probably. That's going to be a new one for me. So I'm sure it will be a little bit weird and hopefully I'm not going to edit too much out, I'm sure of myself. So we'll make sure the end, the.
0:17:09 - (Micah): End podcast is just going to be.
0:17:10 - (Beau): Me talking, you talking and me saying, right, that's what it's going to be. That's going to be all of it. But no, this has been great. You know, I'm happy to hop in and have this discussion, you know. And in the future, if you ever need me back, I'm happy to be here as well.
0:17:26 - (Micah): Awesome. All right, thanks everybody for listening and we'll catch you next week.
0:17:30 - (Alane): Thanks for listening to this episode of Automate youe Agency. We hope you're inspired to take your business to the next level. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. Your feedback helps us improve and reach more listeners. If you're looking for more resources, visit our website at BiggestGold AI for free content and tools for automating your business. Join us next week as we dive into more ways to automate and scale your business.
0:17:55 - (Alane): Bye for now.
