Agency Journey

EOS is a system that helps agencies improve their operations by aligning goals, processes, and people, creating more efficiency and effectiveness in decision-making, communication, and accountability across the organization.

Show Notes

In this episode, Anne Shenton, CEO of Ascend Strategy & Design, a HubSpot Diamond and Advanced CMS Implementation certified solutions partner, joins Gray MacKenzie to dig deeper into the impact of implementing EOS.

Whether it's self-implementation or with a professional implementer, you will learn how an agency quantifies the impact of implementing EOS.

Topics discussed in the episode:

How Ascend balances using ninety.io and ClickUp and their approach on how to leverage using both tools
Ascend's quick background story and how they first discovered EOS
Anne's career journey, her passion for websites, and how she navigated her career growth
How Ascend Pivoted from being just a department to being its own agency
The Impact of EOS on culture development and the downside of self-implementation
How Ascend's screening process involves its core values.
One of the unusual metrics that Ascend has is "Employee NPS."
Anne's own tech stack and tool recommendation

Presenting Sponsor: ZenPilot

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So, what are you waiting for?

Go to zenpilot.com to learn more.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

What is Agency Journey?

How do world-class agencies continue to grow profitably and hit their goals, even through the choppy waters and challenges of agency life?

How do leaders like Tiffany Sauder, Marcus Sheridan, Jay Acunzo, Shama Hyder, David C. Baker, Nikole Rose, and Zeb Evans think?

Join Agency Journey host Jakub Grajcar as he interviews agency operators and leaders to share insights, actionable tips, and hilarious stories from the builders who live in the agency trenches.

Each episode focuses on crucial aspects of growing an agency like building the right team, delegation, project management, client success and retention, and operating frameworks like EOS.

Brought to you by ZenPilot: we help lead your agency through the final project management implementation you’ll ever need. Book a call to learn more at ZenPilot.com/Call.

Don’t forget to rate + follow the podcast if you enjoyed it!

All right.
Welcome back to Agency Journey.

This is Gray MacKenzie from ZenPilot.

And this week I have the privilege
of bringing on my friend

Anne Shenton who is the co-founder
CEO of Ascend Strategy and Design.

They are HubSpot

Diamond and Advanced CMC Implementation
Certified Solutions Partner.

And welcome to the podcast.

Thank you. Gray
It's a privilege to be here.

I'm I'm super excited
for this conversation.

I put out something on LinkedIn
about wanting to talk to a great agency

to implement. Really.

I don't think when

I put that out there that I even knew
that you had implemented.

Yeah, but that's part
of the conversation that I want to have.

So before we get to iOS, though,
can you give us the profile of Ascend

and these OC all the Ascend
or do you call it Ascend

strategy and design every time?

We absolutely do

not call it a certain
strategy and design every time.

You know, that would be a tough pill
to swallow for everybody.

A mouthful. Yeah.

So ascend is great.

Quick profile.

We are a HubSpot diamond tiered partner.

We've been around since October of 2015,

so we just had our seven year
anniversary.

We specialize in HubSpot, CMC builds

and marketing hub
implementations and retainers.

So that's sort of our
our bread and butter right now.

And you came from a

you were at a marketing role in-house
before starting an agency, right?

That's right.

And there
there actually is some overlap there. So

I started, you know, obviously
my first real job out of grad

school was a marketing director role
for a managed services provider.

So an IT company
and as you know, time went on.

I built
out the website for this company.

I started doing marketing
for this company

and the leadership said, you know,
this is working really well for us.

Why don't
we try to sell it to our clients?

And so that's what ended up happening.

So I started building websites

and then later on that expanded into,
you know, more of the inbound

offerings like social media marketing,
email marketing and the like.

And eventually it got to the point
where, you know, I started to realize

if we were going to be
bringing on a higher caliber of client

that we would need to brand ourselves
separately from the IT side.

Because, you know, if you really looking
for high quality marketing work,

you're not going to go to an ad company,
you know, and vice versa.

Your your high quality i.t needs
are not going to be sent to your agency

because that would be a disaster.

So we started ascend as a division
of this company back in 2015.

There were, you know,

some acquisitions, ownership changes
that happened in 2020

and I'm really proud to say that me
and a couple of other of my colleagues

were able to buy out the division
and we own it outright now.

So that's awesome. Graduations.
Thank you.

This kind of strange question,
but that's what I specialize in,

so that's good.

What were websites
and were you excited to build websites?

Is that what you wanted to do
or was that just,

hey, this is an easier
sell in the market?

This is what the market is asking for
right now?

That's a really good question.

I honestly I would have to say
it's the former.

I really loved it.

And, you know, it's funny,

I when when I was the one building
the websites, though,

they did not look great,
but they performed very well.

You know, I'm a marketer by background,
so I know messaging.

I know SEO,

I know

you know, the technical nuts and bolts
of getting a website up and running.

So even though they don't necessarily
look all that great, they performed

well.

And at the end of the day,
that's what mattered most to the client.

Of course, now, of course, you know,
we're a much more sophisticated agency.

We made a really good looking websites

in addition to being high performing.

So, you know, you don't have
to sacrifice one for the other.

But absolutely, I love it.

I still you know,
I'm trying to get to the point,

as you advise Gray to sort of
get out of the day to day.

But I still love to get in there

and tinker around
with the technical side of things.

Yeah, well, that's leading us

into some of the easy conversation

and kind of where do you see
like reading The Visionary then agree?

We can talk about that in a second.

Yeah.

And Ascend website though
it's beautiful ascend send you

com is the URL obviously
you've put a lot of work into it

but I remember I don't remember
the first time that I saw your website,

but I feel like it was probably 2017,
2018, like

four or five years ago.

And it's always had strong design
like it has always.

Yeah, the brand has looked really clean
from the outside.

Yeah.

But as a startup.

No, no.

Okay.

That's a testament to our visionary
who is Stephen Carter.

He's the other co-founder of Ascend,
and he has a really superior design

acumen and definitely brings that side

of the up to the table to light.

So yeah, well,
so that this is a transition

I was going to make is clean
from the outside like the inside.

And let's talk about

some of the some of the journey
that you've been through.

When did you find out about iOS
and then what was that then?

Hey, here's how were and what's been
what's

been the approach to implementation,
I guess is the first question.

Yeah.

So I think that like a lot of things,
you know, you start to hear about it

and several different places and then,
you know, over time it just becomes this

bug in your ear that you think, Gosh,
I need to look into this more deeply.

So one of the places I saw
it was the HubSpot

Solutions Partner Facebook group.

There are a lot of folks
talking about iOS

even having it on their website,
you know, things like that.

And then I read a book by Clover Higgins

that's like a happy and healthy

digital agency,
I think was the name of the book.

It's a really quick read, good read,
and it talked about,

you know, how great iOS was.

And so between
some of those different rumblings,

you know, I picked up traction.

This was close

to the time that we were looking at, you
know, transitioning over to ownership.

And so I knew that
if we were going to be taking this

on, that we needed to build it
the right way.

And it was transformational.

I mean, it really simplified
a lot of things for us,

helped us prioritize, you know,

set a clear vision,

just all all sorts of really wonderful
things

have come about
as a result of implementing iOS.

Have you self implemented it
or did you work with an employer?

We have self implemented.

I think I saw that you may have started
working with an implementer recently.

I think that's probably something
we will do at some point,

but so far it's it's worked out
well to self implement.

We use a software called Nightly
IO to help us sort of manage

all of the efforts in iOS
and that's been really helpful

to just help us keep tabs on everything.

Of course
we're Zen pilot fans and clicker fans,

so we also manage a lot of our day
to day, you know, rocks,

issues and things like that
and cook up as well.

Yeah, that that might actually be
one thing that's helpful for folks

to go into the 90.

You know,
we often use this tension of like

and APM tools
don't have all the iOS specific tools

that a 90 or iOS one
or one of the other platforms has.

But then if we put everything
inside those tools,

then how do we have our tasks
and all of the taboos

that come out of meetings,
how those lined up

back in our project manager tool,
how do you handle that?

I'm glad you asked.

So we actually struggled with that
a bit as well.

So essentially what we do
is it's a bit of a hybrid approach.

We we track our issues

and meetings and notes
and things like that.

And 90 we track our, you know, overall

revenue goals and metrics
and all of that and 90.

But anything that is an action
item goes and click up.

So if there's something that we need to
do, we put it in, click up.

So the, you know,
we make sure that that it gets

it gets done.

All in the. Lawsuit.

That's right.

Quick helps. It doesn't exist.

That's great.

What so the self-employed mentation

offering you'll find folks
are also deviating from some pieces

and say hey this piece this didn't
really feel like it worked for us.

Is it?

You're laughing already?

Is there

is there anything that you feel like,
Hey, we've put our own spin on this

from iOS either to your benefit
or to your detriment?

That is a really good question.

I think it's more
not necessarily that we are not

or that we have deviated more
so that we are not

leveraging the full iOS toolbox.

There's there's more that we need to do.

You know,
I think we're answering the questions.

You know, we have our values,
we have our issues list,

We we have our KPIs, all of that.

But there are, you know,

questions of

process and measurement
and and other things like that

that we still have a ways
to go to get to get a better handle on.

So sure, that makes sense.

What you mentioned culture there.

Well, how has that evolved?

And like, what's the relationship
between that culture evolution

or development and the iOS
implementation at the same time?

Yeah, but

so that's one of the things I think
really spoke to me when I read Traction

was that there was such a focus on

clearly defining your purpose statement,

clearly defining your core values,
and then,

you know, building
your team based off of a fit

between your core values and basically
their capacity to do the job.

You know, the right
people right seats mentality.

And because of that, you know,

it gives you a scorecard, right,
Or a checklist, I should say,

where that
when you are evaluating a candidate,

you basically go down
the list of your values and say, okay,

they meet all of these

and they get it, they want it,
and they have the capacity to do the job

and just sort of
streamlining and simplifying

that has made hiring decisions
much more clear.

So on that side, you know,
we're we're hiring the right people

for the right seats.

That's,
of course, a big part of building

a good culture is just having
the right people in place.

And then the other aspect of that,
of course, is the working environment

and making sure
that we live these values every day

and then making sure that we're
all aligned and believe in the vision.

And so again, that's another aspect of
values is like it forces you to

set a clear vision, define

the path to get there and get the team
members on the same page.

So, you know,
we get the team together every quarter

and we go through our,
you know, quarterly performance.

We go through, okay, how
are we measuring up to our annual goals?

Are we on track to hit in revenues?

Are we on track to hit,
you know, our monthly

recurring revenue goals,
our project revenue goals, all of that?

We're really transparent
about all of that because,

you know, we want buy in from the team.

We want them to understand

where we're trying to go
and how we're going to get there.

And then, you know, more.

The long term piece is looking at,

okay, well,
where are we going to be in ten years?

Or, you know, I love the three year
picture, too, because it's sort of

you can see it.

You can really see it happening,
but it's far enough away that it

still seems exciting. And,

you know, just

really being able to see like what
what this is going to look like

and in the short amount of time,
how much larger we're going to be,

you know, how what better opportunities
we're going to have,

how much more valuable

we're going to be to our clients,
you know, in the marketplace

really helps our team get excited.

So, yeah.

So your core values among about page
right now, I'm going to stay humble,

work hard, play hard people over
profit, quality over quantity.

But that's total aside.

By the way, I often find that
when you ask people what question like

how are you screening people out?

And I'm going to lead into that question

for you, screening people and screening
people out in the recruiting process,

I find often the

the specific

values they reference line up
showing later in their order.

So quality over
quantity is your fifth one.

I don't know why that is.

I think maybe sometimes we pick
so easy ones early on

and then you get a lot of reported
moments like, Oh, well,

what's our what's our fourth one,
What's our fifth and what's our third?

Whatever?

Yeah, maybe they're ones where, hey,
not there's a lot more people

wouldn't fit this.

So quality over quantity,

you know, maybe there's, there's a way,
there's,

there's certainly ways to screen
people up.

Okay.

But how do you screen for that
in the recruiting process?

And then is there
one or two of those values

where you eliminate
more people than other ones,

or is that not the case?

And it's you know, there's
even distribution over those five.

Sure.

So just to clarify, vary
asking how we screen out

for all values or just that specific
value of quality of all.

Malibu's right.

What I'm interviewing
for a job at Ascend.

What are you asking me or what
are you looking for that says our base?

Definitely not a fit to be here.

Or Yeah, I would have to say the really,

the number one is our number one
value, which is stay humble.

And of course we evaluate across
all of the values.

You know, we,

we look for work ethic,
we look for people that have

interests outside of work
because we're going to have to spend

all this time with them.

Like we want to hang out with people
that are kind of fun, you know,

people over profit,
just not in a for the paycheck.

Basically, we compensate.

Well, but that's we're
we're here for a bigger purpose

and quality over quantity.

You know just looking at the work
that they've done and,

you know,
making sure that it's it's up to snuff.

It's it's top notch
whether that's writing samples code,

you know, references, things like that.

But just to go back to stay humble,
you know,

that's that's probably the biggest one
that we screen on.

And add

red flags like as as far as like

sort of weeding people out

hence of blame

like, well,
I can't do my job because of X, Y and Z.

These people are in my way
like things like that.

A lot of self-talk.

I'm so great because of X, Y,

z and I understand
that you need to do that

to a certain extent in a job interview.

But I found that there, you know,
there's a way to present that

in such a way where, you know,
you can demonstrate your,

your capabilities without bragging.

And there's there's a line there.

And, you know, if

if that line is crossed,
then they're probably not going to be

a good fit for us.

And we're very much
a collaborative environment

where we're the kind of place where,
you know, we have each other's back.

There's not a lot of shifting blame.

There's really no shifting blame
among the team or to our clients.

So we just want to make sure that
we keep that intact in the long haul.

Yeah.

How do you how do those of these values
play out in the day to day?

Not necessarily
like so you've got a team of people

who exemplify this is
how do you keep promoting those values

to build
the culture that you're trying to build?

Is that, you know, a monthly
all hands that we have or

I mean, tagging people and celebrating
on a weekly basis, What are

what are you doing to promote
those values when the current team.

Yeah, so a few different
things that we do We have

we have a weekly stand up,

a very short meeting
just celebrating wins.

You know housekeeping items

and just a chance
for us to all get together

on one zoom and look each other
in the eye for a little bit.

Every week we use Slack.

And so we have
we use the the Hey Taco rewards system

and Slack where you give each other
little taco emojis.

And those can actually be redeemed
for real rewards

like a day off or Amazon
gift card or lunch, etc..

And so we really make use of that

to get people recognition
for their hard work.

We're very intentional
about our get togethers,

whether those are virtual or in person.

We have two in person
get together as a year.

We have one that's here in our office,
our physical office,

which only a couple of us
actually work in here in South Georgia.

But we bring the team down and,

you know, have sort of a working week
here,

but we're all in the same place
together,

mixed in with a few fun activities
and dinners and things like that.

And then we also have an annual retreat.

We call it the hang out.

We actually just got back
from that last week.

We went down to Orlando,
we went to Epcot for a day.

We, you know, hung out by the pool.

We went to Topgolf.

It was honestly the time of my life.

It was it was a really good time.

And I think it's a benefit of having,
you know,

not heavy overhead costs

with having a physical facility
is that you're able to take some of that

money and put it

towards a really cool experience
like that.

That that is awesome.

I think

having to go also as a
like his lifestyle,

it's funny
how some of those simple things

like I think having a mix of both,
having a really impactful

onsite and a high emotional intensity

get togethers are really important.

And I also think
having the simple block intact

and then we've got a weekly setup up
and we do this weird thing

and so it looks really strange
from the outside,

but on the inside
it's super fun and it's part of

part of building culture.

That's awesome. Absolutely. Thanks.

How do you as you think about the impact
of implementing iOS

and your on your journey there,
how do you quantify that?

Or if you know you're telling somebody

at inbound next year, hey, here's here's
why this is a great decision.

Is it?

Hey, we started measuring numbers
with these consistent scorecards

and what we hadn't done before
and we started all of a sudden hitting,

you know, revenue
goals, profit goals, whatever that is.

Or is it

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What is Agency Journey?