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
more on the cultural front?
What are the ways that you quantify the impact of U.S.?
I think they go hand in hand.
Gray.
I think, you know, again,
if you have the right people, the right culture in place,
folks will do good work.
And as a result, you'll hit your numbers.
But the scorecard has to be there.
I mean,
you know, I think I think back to the time before we implemented
iOS and we had an annual revenue goal every year,
but there was no backing that out.
You know, it was just like, well, we we think we can have this.
And what iOS really brings into play is, you know, the,
the quarterly structure, the, the rock structure
and then just breaking each of these pieces down.
You know, it's like that analogy
with the jar that you, you know, fill it up with rocks and then sand and
it's that kind of thing is just
breaking it down into digestible chunks so that we know,
okay, if this is our annual revenue goal,
this is where we have to get this quarter.
If we have to get here this quarter, this is how many
clients we need to bring on.
If we need to break on this many clients,
then we need to have this many sales
meetings a week, you know, or this many proposals are out the door.
So it really helped, you know,
distill that down into manageable chunks
that can give you really a playbook to get there.
Yeah, And make sense.
I get three questions for you as we wrap up,
and two of them are short and silly through my require of it.
What's the weirdest number on your scorecard?
Is there anything that would surprise us?
Why It is number one, the.
Number metric measurable, right?
So. Right.
Well, I don't know the weird one, but maybe unusual.
An employee NPS score.
Yeah.
So you know typically NPS or client facing stuff
but we we do a biannual
or probably eventually move into a quarterly employee NPS
that's been really helpful to get a gauge on
you know where we can do better of leaders,
how we can improve our work environment for our employees.
That's a great one.
You've already given us some tour recommendations.
You mentioned 90 Cook up Slack.
Hey, Taco Bell, are there any other lesser
known tools that are like these in the Ansett?
Shannon Or the send secret secret tool that you're loving right now?
Yeah, this one is really simple, but I love it.
It's called Slick Plan and I use it to build out
a flow charts and site architecture diagrams.
I found that a lot of these tools are just like way more complicated
than what I need and this one's really simple, straightforward.
You just plug it in and you're good to go.
I really like that tool and awesome.
The third one is looking forward.
We're wrapping, you know,
here in Q4 of 22, we're recording this.
What's the big, you know, yeah, this three year
is in the running towards, but what are the priorities in the next six,
12 months that you're running for for Ascend.
Yeah.
One is just maintaining our, our diamond tier status in HubSpot,
making sure that we escalate forward into early
at some point over the next couple of years.
So that's that's been a big push for us.
Another big push, as you know,
we have a formalized employee onboarding plan,
but we want to build that out into more of a full fledged development
plan or, you know, offering for our employees.
So they're always improving
or learning and sort of have a place to go for that.
And then I think a lot of agencies are going through this right now, too.
But or maybe it's just at the point where we are in our maturation,
but looking
to standardize our offerings and make those,
you know, more packaged up and easier for prospects and clients to understand.
Yeah, that's awesome.
All three of those make a lot of sense.
Well, that's been super fun.
I mentioned it before.
Is there anywhere else that we should point people in to follow you?
I love LinkedIn.
I post, you know, a few times a week.
So yeah, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
I always love to connect with other agency owners and employees.
So awesome.
Well, make sure that is in the show notes here.
Thanks so much for joining us on the agency journey.
Yeah, thank you. Great. It was a pleasure.