Tom Hunt’s Post

Most marketing agencies fail at 3 people and $10k MRR. Fame has 70 and $283k MRR. Why? 5 reasons: 1️⃣ FOCUS For 4 years, we did 1 thing: b2b podcasts. With 1 pricing model: monthly subscription. This enabled us to get better than any other agency trying to do the same thing. 2️⃣ RUTHLESS COST REDUCTION We don't pay for: - CRM - Slack - Legal - Office This means we can charge less for a better service. Which means more customer retention/referrals. 3️⃣ METHODICAL MARKETING We spent 3 years getting customers from Google. Only Google. 1 year ago I layered on LinkedIn. Now we get customers from both. Slow and simple. 4️⃣ CULTURE We: - Hire/fire/reward on our values - Only promote from within (no senior hires) - Don't track time (we trust our team members) Employee churn is the silent killer of most agencies. 5️⃣ RETENTION If we had an office, you would hear this muttered daily: "Retention is the foundation of growth" We built the company around this concept. It manifests in: - How we talk to clients - How we run internal meetings And results in higher LTV. If you think different about building your business. You will get different results. Agree?

Prosecco on tap is not "culture". Ping-pong tables are not "culture". Thursday night pizza to get people to work late is not "culture". Culture is: - Flexible work - Psychological safety - Supporting career progression In other words: - Collecting the kids from school at 3pm each day - Being able to tell your boss: "I am struggling today" - Monthly chats about your career with your manager Culture is all the things that your people do each day, especially your leadership team. Culture doesn't come from HR. It comes from the top. And the bottom. It isn't stuff. It's how you behave. Agree?

"Yes, I know he's offensive and gets angry... but he closes deals" ^^ a friend telling me he's having issues with a new sales rep. One of the worst things you can do as a CEO is keep a toxic team member because they "close deals". Short term? You get a boost in sales. Long term? Your culture suffers: - They disrupt others - Customers will notice - Your best people will leave Over the long term, great company culture is the biggest profit driver. Not the one team member who is driving revenue (but everyone hates and is killing the vibe). Keeping them shows you care more about "deals" than the happiness of your people. If you want to create a great culture, show him the door… no matter how well he performs. Your team will notice. Great culture takes time to build. Think long-term. You are the gatekeeper.

90% of jobs can be taught. Why do most employers care about: - Education - Experience It doesn’t work. Instead of college degrees, let’s look at attitude. Instead of experience, let’s look at values alignment. During interviews: - Turn over the resume - Talk about who they are Attitude is more important than experience. Build a growth-based culture. Teach the role. Ignore the CV. Agree?

Leadership is a choice. - Can you grow into the leader your business needs? - Will you scale your leadership skills from 1x to 2x to 5x to 10x? - Will you settle for being just a good leader? - Or will you never stop growing into a great leader? Leadership is a responsibility Not an entitlement Leadership is a matter of action Not genetics Leadership is a decision Not an accident Whether you learn to lead your team greatly… is a choice. Make the right one.

Stop sending Slack messages after hours. It’s hurting: - You - Your culture - Your team members Instead, schedule them. Not for 9 am. But for 9:15 or 9:30. Give your team members time to log in, get started… then receive. It’s a win:win: - You get to brain dump there and then - Their evening remains theirs Just because you’re working at 11 pm, doesn’t mean your team should.

Team members don’t just want remote work. They want flexible work. They don’t want: - Daily updates - Passive aggressive Slack messages - To have to hang around the office until 6 pm This week I had my whole family visit us in Rome. And thanks to Fame’s flexible culture, I was able to: - Sleep in after a late dinner - Show them around in the afternoons I took a call during "aperitivo" and responded to Slack messages on the go. Flexible work isn’t only about being able to work from anywhere (though this is awesome). It’s about being able to: - Do the important things in life - Whilst still delivering value to the business On your terms. This isn’t for everyone. Some people love commuting to the office. But we embrace flexible work. And you should too. Who's with me?

“I can’t find any qualified candidates” A founder was complaining to me last week… I'm concerned. There could be an issue with: - Culture - Job description - Sourcing strategy Then I learn he's demanding 4 years of experience for an “entry-level” position 🤣 Companies used to train entry-level employees. Now? They tack add “entry-level” to the job description to save cash. But here’s the challenge: experience isn’t free. If you’re after experience, you need to pay. So if you’re not ready to invest… How about we make your entry-level role... entry-level? Agree?

A new team member asked me to approve their holiday. I was a little confused… I replied: “Of course, it’s approved. I don’t think it’s my place to tell you when you can or can’t take time off I don’t care when you go on holiday. We have an agreement, you deliver a result… and we pay you for it” We trust our team to get their work done. Finish early on Friday’s? OK. Work from your parent's house? OK. Work from your phone in the gym? OK. Work from Wetherspoons after dropping the kids off at school? OK. We are all adults. Keeping clients happy? We're happy. Flexible work is the future. Agree?

In the past 18 months, we: - Added $2m in ARR - Have doubled the team How? We focused on building an awesome culture. Here are 3 simple things we do: 1️⃣ Only promote from within We are yet to hire someone in a senior role. People come in: - Master their roles - Adapt to our culture And then progress. This is the #1 thing a business can do to preserve culture. 2️⃣ Hire/fire/reward based on values We have four: - Client Client Client - Operational Excellence - Growth Obsessed - Action Bias And we use them to: - Hire people - Fire people (in a nice way) - Give bonuses This keeps the values in mind. And ensures we live by them. 3️⃣ Have Monthly Chats Every manager has a Monthly Chat with the team members they manage: - What’s going well? - What’s going not so well? - What do you want to do/learn more of? - How can I be a better manager for you? This way, every team member knows: - That we care - What to work on - Where they stand TLDR Your job as a CEO is to make the “deal” as good as possible for your team members. If you do that… They will reward you with a great culture. And great cultures, build great businesses.