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Do Good Work is not a label but a way of living.
It is the constant and diligent effort to achieve a new level of excellence in one’s own life.
It is the hidden inner beauty behind the struggle to achieve excellence.
It is not perfect but imperfect.
It is the effort, discipline and focus that often goes unnoticed.
The goal of this podcast is to highlight that drive.
The guests I have on this show emulate this drive in their own special way. You’ll be able to apply new ideas into your own life by learning from them.
We will also have 1on1 episodes with me where we’ll dive into my own experiences with entrepreneurship and leadership.
Every episode is designed to provide you with ideas that you can apply and grow in excellence in all areas of your life, business and career.
Do Good Work,
Raul
INTRO
PODCAST
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114:
Do you ever feel like your
agency is actually running you?
Most of the times it is, but you're
constantly putting out fires to grind.
You're managing clients, the team
is running around, you have no idea
what to do next, and you're kind of
stuck in this perpetual hamster wheel.
Sometimes I felt like one year in the
agency was like three years in real life.
And just picture this, like you're
out at sea, you're rowing your boat
or the agency, this crew is scattered.
They're doing their best, but
have no clue where you're heading.
There's no map, there's no course.
You might follow the stars, but it's a
foggy night and there's a storm coming.
Well, I'm going to upgrade your
rowboat into a yacht today because
Leia pretty much focuses on solving
that, taking your rowboat and
actually upgrading it to a yacht.
But without me butchering or
adding more to this, Leia, can you
tell us a little bit more about
who you are, what you're doing?
And you're doing it,
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
Absolutely.
And I'm excited to be here chatting
with you because I know you and I
have had some great conversations
about this already on how to elevate,
you know, to that yacht mentality.
so my name is Leah Leeds.
I am the founder and CEO of
Alderon Operations Solutions,
which is the all in one solution
for digital marketing agencies.
And so what this means is that
we actually embed fractional ops
professionals into those agencies
that need to go from the rowboat
mentality up to the yacht experience.
and we help them with our aldera approach.
which is goals, systems and team.
We help you refine and clarify the
goals of what you're actually here
to do and build and refine the
systems to help achieve that and
then encourage and empower the team
with an ownership mentality so that
it's never on one person's shoulders.
Typically the agency owner.
So we're really focused on helping
agency founders and leaders focus back
on the growth rather than on the grind.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: that's
a key thing, growth on grind.
And there's three
bottlenecks to any business.
and I discuss this in a separate podcast,
but the first is your marketing and sales.
That's the first constraint.
Once you solve that, then the second
constraint is your operations.
Once you solve that, your
third constraint is leadership.
When I work with teams, I focus a lot on
all three, sometimes the operations is
more on the mentality, the workflow, the
approach and leadership approach, but the
thing that I love that Leah does is she
embeds the person in your agency for you
and runs it where, so, you know, you have
a solid, like that's the number one hack.
That's the number one hire.
I always recommend once you dial
in your sales and you have things
like turning pretty well, which is
never, it's never a one and done.
The key hire is getting
that ops person in there.
That is the number one, like strategic
hire, which will lessen your stress.
Because I've personally done that.
Just allow things to move fluidly.
And I think the key thing is when
you put something in that position,
they have to know the chops.
Cause if you're training them it
kind of becomes like they can only
be at the capacity that you are.
So you have to level up, but
you're not able to level up because
you're caught in everything.
So let's dive into the
process specifically, cause
it seems pretty simple, right?
You set goals, you create
systems, sink it to the team.
Same thing with like
training for an Ironman.
You swim, you run, you
bike, but it's not easy.
There's a lot involved to it.
So you can kind of dive into the process.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
Yeah, so we take a lot of our
best practices and principles and
foundational knowledge, you know, From
the entrepreneurial operating system.
So we like to call ourselves adjacent,
meaning that we help the agency founder
understand what those big picture goals
are and how we do that is through specific
tools, like clarifying their vision
and putting that onto actual paper,
not just digital paper, but actually
onto paper, get them really connected.
Back to Why they started their
business in the first place.
Because most agency founders we
find, and you probably heard the of
the accidental agency owner where
they were so good at what they did,
and they went off on their own.
they were doing a great job.
So great that they got so many
referrals that they started
growing their client base.
Then they started needing to
bring in a few contractors.
It kept growing and all of a sudden
they find themselves underwater, burning
out, frustrated because the quality
of the work is going down and they
don't know how to fix it because they
can't communicate with their team of
like, why can't you just do it like me?
And of course, the team's like,
Because you're not telling me
how to do it or what to do.
And so we refine that original
vision, that feeling of, again, why
did you start doing this on your own?
was it to bring better quality
work, and strategic level
thinking, to the PPC, industry?
Do you really like
going deep into content?
And you feel that there's a story that
every small business owner should tell.
We tap back into that, you know,
and that's through annual planning,
quarterly goal planning, or in the
EOS system, quarterly rock planning.
So We take the really big
ideas and we start funneling
it down to that next level.
So instead of just this 30, 000 foot view
of like, there's this vision out there,
you know, we'd love to have a yacht.
You know, it's like, okay, great.
Well, then what needs to happen in order
to achieve that in sequential positions?
All right.
And that's when we get into the
systems and the systems are okay.
Legitimately.
Do you have the simple steps of client?
Onboarding, client management
and client off boarding defined.
How about team onboarding,
management and off boarding?
Or even a favorite of ours is money
in money management and money out.
All right.
You can see I craft everything
in as much of simplicity as
possible in my three steps.
It's goal assistance team, money in money
management, money out so that Instead
of it being in the systems phase of this
massive project of having to like document
every little detail and how are we going
to do that when everyone is already
over capacity and feeling burnt out.
It's like, well, you start getting them
to record themselves, you know, start
piping it through, you know, AI and
automations to craft the SOPs, you know,
start linking the dots together, you
know, so that ultimately it's building
that foundation to achieve those goals.
And then once you're getting people
in that mode of like, okay, there's
a little bit of structure here.
There's a little bit of standardization,
there's, you know, a little bit
of operations support so that we
can breathe again, that we can
start thinking more strategically.
So now, where do I fit in?
Is what most team members are thinking
at that point, because they've done,
again, a little bit of everything
themselves and so now if they're really
there to be a creative strategist,
if they're really there to be a PPC
coordinator, we need to give them again
a little bit of that standardization
and that's when we lean into the team.
We are collaborating
and working with them.
This is why I love being embedded into
the agencies and having our professionals
there because we are building the
plane as we're flying it right?
We're in the trenches with them rather
than.
Just coming in giving a
plan and then hopping out.
and then rinse and repeat, right?
Every time you hit that next
level of Oh, yes, it's clicked.
We get it.
Let's realign with those goals.
You know, are the goals now at a level
that we can say we've got the annual plan.
We've got the quarterly rocks.
How about the monthly milestones?
How do those connect to our KPIs?
What are the systems we're going to
use to track our data that's not manual
and who's responsible making sure
that that data is accurate, right?
So it all connects, you know, back into,
you know, the bigger picture system.
But it really, in my opinion,
is enhanced by having that ops
professional, again, in the trenches,
you know, with the agency founder,
with the team members around them.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114:
Yes, everyone needs a coach,
or at least a mentor, right?
Like, even when I started the iron
man training, I bought a coach program
because I just wasn't mentally prepared.
And it's trained me to the point where,
like, I would have never trained that way.
Same thing here.
Like, again, simple principles, but
applied discipline with experience.
I think make a difference.
There's 2 things that you mentioned
that I really want to ask you around.
The 1st is on, like, the vision and
the why, and then the 2nd is around
current trends that you're seeing
right now in the marketplace with.
The teams, the implementation, some
of the roadblocks that we're facing.
So there are two big, major, major
questions with the first what are
the themes or the trends that you're
seeing specifically around when people
start their agency, usually it's
either a, I'm pretty good at this.
And I'm like, I want to make more,
or this just grew into something
that I didn't think it'd be possible.
Like, how do you elevate people
from going to It's like a circle.
I'll give you a metaphor.
When you begin your circle of influence,
your circle of focus is around you
and your immediate responsibilities or
family like me or like dependence of me.
But then from there you grow this thing.
Now you got other people in a bigger
community that you're supporting.
So how do you help founders
elevate that thinking to?
It's not just me anymore.
Now I have a broader responsibility
to the community and to others.
And my impact can actually make
a bigger difference now because
we've been so successful.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: it's
a great question, because for agency
founders, we find that their mindset,
especially when they've had their
business, let's say 345 years, and they've
been in the trenches so deeply with their
team members that they have a really
hard time going from what Dan Sullivan
of strategic coach calls going from a
level one leadership to like a level two.
And the level one is exactly what you
mentioned It's all around the individual.
the ecosystem.
Like they're the sun.
Everything is revolving around them versus
being able to look at the universe as
a bigger picture and seeing all these
pieces moving on the chessboard how we
help agency founders in general, go from
Focusing in the trenches on the grind, to
really elevating themselves to focusing on
the growth, is first and foremost, helping
them clarify what is it that they want.
And this is a little bit different
than just saying like, oh, helping
them clarify their vision, because
the vision incorporates what they
want for others, you know, and
how they view the business being.
Perceived, from other competitors.
much like the vivid vision
by Cameron Harold, right?
It is 360 degree view of how they want
their business, to actually operate.
So we start baby steps, right?
We start a few steps before that.
just like, Hey, what do you want?
so helpful to go through a reflection
process and a retrospective
of where they originate from.
And most times we see that it's
because they were burned by a
corporate experience, you know,
where they were put in a box and
they were told, stay in your box.
These are most often, you know,
creatives, you know, of some kind that
we're talking about and strategists,
you know, and big picture thinkers.
So to be in a corporate experience where
you get to go from box to maybe this
box or maybe go sideways to another box.
It's stifling and it's just, it's
heartbreaking and that's more often than
not why they got out of it was so that
they could explore outside of the box.
They could explore what does it look like?
What does it feel like?
You know, that freedom to actually be
creative rather than freedom from like,
Oh, just punching the clock, you know?
So, so it's really embracing like a 10 X
jump for them, you know, in a mindset and.
What happens is they just
get stuck in the grind.
So they do this massive jump in their
mindset, and then they do exactly the
opposite of what they wanted to be,
which was they wanted to have like all
this freedom and all this creativity,
you know, but they're so trained in
the corporate experience, you know,
that they have the same mindset, you
know, toward their other team members.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Oh,
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: And
they start putting them in boxes and,
and when I say boxes for most agency
owners, they're very against having
like the corporate structure, right.
So they've kind of blown that up and
they put like one big box of like,
we're just a family, we're all together,
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Oh yeah.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
but it's still in a box of.
They haven't collaborated
with their team members.
You know, they haven't really
opened their eyes to what their
team members could contribute.
So it's just everybody's in this
big box together, and they're all
stepping on each other's toes, and
nobody has the communication skills
to say, like, Hey, this isn't working.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: I
mean, the awareness really, not
just the communication, like just
knowing that there's a better way.
Cause if you're in that silo.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Yeah.
and that's where sometimes it's just
talking it out to get started because
most of the agency owners that we work
with, they are smaller agency owners,
you know, they may have teams of like
3 to 30, 3 to 50 people, you know, they
may be under a million, you know, or
even up to like 5 million, you know,
annual revenue and yet they don't have
anyone that they can really open to.
They don't have really anyone that they
can talk to and just let it out and like
vent, you know, or sometimes just say
like, hey, I've got this crazy idea and I
have no idea what to do with it, you know,
and so we come in from the operations
perspective and say, that's the operators.
position is to let you talk
about what you really want.
I want this person to do it that way.
You know, I want us to be the
best in the business for this.
You know, I want great.
Tell me more.
I want to hear that
because then that connects to
the bigger picture vision of what
does it then mean to your team?
What does it mean to your community?
What does it mean to your customers?
Yeah.
and how does it connect
to the greater industry?
Right.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: And
they can implement it, then
they can actually run with it.
That's the key thing.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
totally, so those are like some of
the steps, but at the end of the day,
again, we try and simplify it to.
Let's talk it out and get it down onto
paper, you know, because then we can
actually start organizing it and putting
it into like systems and actually results.
And what does that look like in the how
and the what, you know, not just the why.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Yeah.
It's also, it becomes like
a mental health thing.
Like you're able to tell that person, that
operator, this is what I want, the vision,
go and make it happen, go figure it out.
And having that kind of person in
there is, and having been that kind
of person, it's still like in other
peripherals now with clients, It's nice.
It's really nice.
Even for me being on the other
side now wanting that person
in it's a nice experience.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
Well, and I think most agency
founders, because they are so capable
of doing so many different things.
You know, and that's how they
built their agency to begin with.
whether it's a consultancy or they
jumped right into being an agency, you
know, they've been very capable and
doing a lot on their own shoulders.
so I don't think that it's ever an issue
of them not wanting to ask for help.
I think they're in masterminds,
they're in community networks.
they're absolutely out there
asking for more information
and wanting to learn and grow.
They just don't know where to look, and
they just don't know how to realize it.
So we're just, I think operations
genuinely, you just have a little
dash of operations and agencies.
You can make literally
everyone's lives, right?
Because it gives you that space to feel a
little more safe, a little more secure of
like, okay, we have a structure for this.
We have a plan and.
We still have that freedom to be creative.
We still have that ability to think
for ourselves, you know, as well.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Yeah.
I think that's a, it almost seems
like it's a contradiction, right?
Operations, standardization
with flexibility and freedom.
I had a founder once they were doing
like 200 K a month and we were chatting
just to see like how it can help them.
And he literally asked
like, what is operations?
And I'm like, is this an
existential question or what?
But I think the way that you're defining
it is, it's less of structure and like
rigidity and more about enabling work,
enabling thought, enabling people to
move towards where they need to go.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
A hundred percent.
And you're right.
We get that question too,
you know, what is operations?
Like, what do you guys really do?
You know, because it's such this black
box, you know, for most agency founders
of they've just done things without
knowing what they're doing, right?
They've built a team, you know, they've
built a culture, you know, they've had
core values and they're living them, you
know, and likely even hiring on it may
not, they may not be firing yet on them,
but they're hiring, you know, because
they have this like intuition, this gut
that they are being led by But they just
don't have the language with it, you know,
and they haven't shared that language.
Then once it's typically defined,
they haven't shared it with their team
because they get a little nervous, right?
Like, Oh, wow.
Okay.
I have a vision.
I have what I want.
You know, I know who we
are and what we do best.
Is my team going to be aligned with that?
Like, are they going to be bought in?
You know, like, how are
we going to roll this out?
And every time we start getting
into the how, you know, I'm
like, okay, how do we do this?
You know, great.
Let's talk about operations.
there you go.
It's.
You know, what are we aiming toward?
Why are we here?
And how are we going to implement it?
so they all connect, but
it's funny because we do get
that question quite often.
Like, so what is operations?
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: So
what is this existential angst
thing that you have going on?
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: yeah,
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: To turn
the convo a little bit different
you know, we've had a good heyday,
you know, 21, 22, like really
good growth in the agency space.
23 was a rough year.
24 was almost like a I'm
not sure what 24 was.
It just depends on who you talk to.
And if you're in the creative
scene definitely there's
a lot of marketing cuts.
Like when I'm, just to give you
perspective, when I do growth
strategy for clients, a lot of the
things that I do on the back end
is look at trends and growth rates.
So I'm able to like, without being
super nerdy in detail, like be able
to identify, you ICPs and markets.
And then from there identify their
growth trends for the last eight
quarters, depending on their hiring
rates and what they're investing in.
And significantly in some of the
industries that we're tapping
into that I'm seeing as a whole,
just from my peripheral the
cuts have been significantly
in marketing specifically in.
Probably because of the creative,
the generative AI, et cetera.
What are you seeing right now?
What are some of the, obviously
this is not a thing that AI
is replacing or changing.
It is augmenting and changing a
few things and it will continue
to, especially this year.
But what are you seeing now when it comes
to the market shift with your clients?
What are some of your market takes?
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
It's very much leaning into utilizing
generative AI and more automations.
to give that extra, you know,
for their creative abilities
and their strategic insight.
Because you're right, like 2023
definitely saw, especially with
larger agencies, you know, get hit.
And 2024, it felt like that trickled
down to smaller agencies in particular.
And 2025, like, I know that It's
been a topic for many years, not
just, since chat GPT popularized,
generative AI in mainstream culture,
AI has been around for a long time,
and it's been evolving, and it will
continue to evolve much more rapidly
than I think we all are prepared for.
We all are learning.
We're growing, with it.
And so one thing that we are in particular
focused on for 2025 with agencies and
agency industry as a whole, is to lean
further into it to make sure that we are
catapulting that potential for creative
input, creative insight and the strategic
value of agencies to their clients.
and there are so many agencies
that, let alone, scratching the
surface with AI, haven't even tapped
into the value add of automations,
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Oh yeah.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Right.
Like we look at it from the perspective
of even looking at operations.
So much of the day to day that we
come in and typically handle like day
to day fires, you know, day to day
admin, understanding how to manage
teams like we're not at the point
yet of replacing people managers,
but we are at the place of replacing
a lot of administrative functions
with more automations.
And then the actual AI, the
generative AI components.
Again, I don't see that as replacing
for most functions in 2025.
It will be increasing their value, it will
be just giving the space, you know, for
the strategist, the specialist, the agency
founders themselves, you know, to ideate
further and take it to that next level.
Cause I'll be honest, I feel like
agencies, you know, have gotten a
little complacent, you know, with the
cycle, you know, of just feeling like.
Okay, you put clients in, you turn
clients, you know, and it's just this
cycle that becomes very rote and it's
almost like a widget in a factory.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: is unfortunate.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: it just
breaks my heart because like my goal,
you know, as an individual, and as, you
know, CEO of Aldron is really to Bring
us back to the golden age, you know, or
create a new golden age, you know, for
agencies to again, get to that beautiful
tandem balance, you know, of having
the creative and the strategic big
picture mindset with the incredibly
flawless technical execution.
Not a lot of industries have that combined
in one package, you know, that they
can really say this is a partner of my
business, you know, so, I fundamentally
believe that agencies will continue
to exist and evolve and iterate with
generative AI with automations, you
know, if they're truly embracing them,
not just for all the busy work, I mean,
don't get me wrong, like, we absolutely
agree with getting some
of the busy work out.
Like, that's the whole point of bringing
us is, you know, Get some of that busy
work out or just identify like what you
need to delete, you know, or just stop
doing, you know, there's so many things
that we're just in habits, you know,
and I get that it happens to all of us.
And so having that structure, you know,
again, coming back, maybe every quarter
or every 6 months, you know, and really
looking with a clean lens, you know, at
what you're doing, how you're doing it.
you know, gives you that capacity
to then evolve with that next space.
So, so I do think that 2025 is
going to be a massive year of
change, you know, and growth and
evolution for the agency industry,
particularly on the smaller agencies.
I think you'll see some that are
going to be way more nimble, you
know, Some of the bigger ones.
And, you know, I'd say within the next,
you know, three years and, and this is
just me putting out something that likely
because of how it's, it's evolving, it'll
be in one year rather than three years.
But I truly believe that it's going
to be that, that 10 X jump where
the top 20 percent that get it and
want it and are iterating with it.
Will continue to exist in a fundamentally
better way, maybe not different,
maybe like the whole agency industry.
And I don't think it's going to collapse.
I think it's going to be better.
I think it's going to be so much
more fruitful of what is actually
developed and delivered and created.
And, I get really excited about it
because I see there are threads of that.
You know, that are being explored
in a lot of different industries,
and we have the added benefit.
I think most agencies do you get to see
not just like the agency industry, but
obviously like your customers industries.
Right and so you get to see how they
might be utilizing it and where.
You could potentially support them in
that insight, you know, like, Hey, if
this is working for us, it could work
for you, not just on marketing strategy
or advertising strategy, but business
strategy, how it all connects back to the
bigger picture of the business results.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114:
It's pretty interesting
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: but
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114:
Is it a semantics thing?
Like just talking about
agencies as a whole?
Cause like I saw a post yesterday.
Well, there's three things.
One Jensen from NVIDIA mentioned that
AI is evolving faster than Moore's
law, which is not a surprise to me.
So that's obvious.
But it's like what you
mentioned faster than we expect.
The second like a lot of
people are getting burned by
careless quote unquote agencies.
And I think it's a semantics issue, right?
So I think that there will be.
So the third point is that anything
with the word agent, insurance agent,
real estate Agent will be replaced
by an AI agent is what the future is
gearing towards which a lot of people
might disagree with that statement.
I'm a futurist and I believe in the
good that we can do with technology,
not just in the bad that it might
displace, but I think it will affect,
like you mentioned, just like.
Turn and burn agencies, or the ones
that can't keep their promises,
which is apparently very common.
It's kind of baffling to me.
But I do see the gap
that you're mentioning.
And maybe we shouldn't call them
agencies at the top because.
I mean, I've been leveraging a
lot of the deliverables that I'm
doing just to help me 10 X my.
My not just throughput, but quality
in the way that I'm able to go
deeper and faster and better.
Obviously, it's not cheap.
technology is getting it's
almost as much as a one person.
But
my, my point is, like, do you
think it's just a semantics thing?
Like, we're all categorizing
those churn and burn.
Don't keep your promises into an agency,
but then you're also mentioning the
strategic partner with the technical
capabilities to really deeply
integrate, which I find the beauty
and the, not the simplicity, cause
it's complicated, but I think that
value is even more needed or required.
Like, is it a semantics thing or
is it just like a quality thing?
We just need to talk about it.
You got to do quality work and you
got to implement it well, or we should
call those other training burden, not
agencies, just like product services.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
it's an interesting point because
I actually do love getting into,
the details of where words come
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114:
No, you like details.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: oh, yeah.
love it.
And this is where I don't want to
cut those churn and burn agencies
out necessarily, just like as a
whole and just say like chunk it off.
And the reason why is because I think that
a lot of them, they have good intentions,
they have a good heart, you know, not
all of them, but most of them, and this
is from my point of view, I very much
see that I am totally biased on this.
I think it is because they have
a complete lack of understanding
of what operations are.
and what business is.
And so they have seen from social media,
they have seen, you know, from friends
or other people online, what an agency
is, and that's the turn and burn option.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: like
the two hour work day or something,
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
and so I, that's what I want to pull
together because I do believe that
it's not just in the hands of the few.
You know, where we are
going as an industry.
I don't believe that it's just those
few that have their operations figured
out, have their strategy figured out
and they're capitalizing on all these
other technical advancements and then
they'll create maybe a whole different
movement or a whole different industry.
I think there's so much value in
the agency industry as a whole that,
yeah, I'm getting a little bit on
my soapbox of like, I want to help
save some of that because there's
so much in those turn and burn that.
That's all they know.
and every single agency founder
that we've ever worked with, and
I truly believe everyone that
we will continue to work with.
One of the first things that they ask us
is like, well, how do other people do it?
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Oh, yeah,
because you have the experience.
That's one of the most valuable
pieces that I hear with working with
you, or just that they ask me, like,
what are your other clients doing?
I'm like, oh, it's kind of cool because
they're in a silo and you have datasets.
I'm like, oh, this is
actually working over here.
We should just implement
that or something,
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Exactly.
And if they've only ever asked
that question of their little
bubble and they're in their own
little echo chamber of, again,
kind of the turn and burn
unit, then I can't fault them.
I really can't fault them for that.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: it's not
to follow, but I just think that
you're going to get squeezed to
level up either forcefully or you
do it voluntarily is what I'm saying
with what we're going to be
able to see of what's possible.
Even me, I'm trying to figure out
how to build some agents for some
of the work that we're doing.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Yeah.
Same.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: So no,
and I appreciate that empathy and
making sure that we, yeah, they may
only know that, but it's also the
either have to face the music or
hopefully hear this and voluntarily
choose like, Hey, there must be a
third path versus what I'm being told.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Yeah.
Now, I will fault them if they
put their head in the sand.
Right?
and they just, they're just like,
nope, not going to deal with it.
Like I can keep making money
the way I'm making money.
You know,
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Oh Yeah.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: those,
yeah, okay, those, let's put them on
the shelf, like, who we're really here,
to help and to support because I truly
believe there are so many small agency
founders out there that are desperate.
To evolve.
They're desperate to learn and grow
and find these communities, these
agency related communities to see,
like, yeah, what are people doing?
What is everyone else working on that
is going to level us up holistically
and yeah, I 100 percent agree that
the trajectory that we're on is not
somewhere that I have any full insight
into, three, 10 years down the line.
You know, and at the same time, like
the short term, you know, looking
at like the next year, like there's
so much opportunity for digital
marketing and advertising agencies,
to really lean in and like have a
fun time getting back to their roots,
like why they got into
this in the first place.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Yeah, I think
the soft skills and the creative and the
net new thinking is where it's heading.
And one of the things, so this is like
one of the final topic that I want to
dive into with you is you hit on it.
Strategic thinking, plus
the technical capabilities.
I'm seeing right now that
just having one core service.
Is not a viable business
model in the agency space.
you're doing a community on
top of your core service.
So like, that's something that I
want to lean into and understand
more about what you're doing there.
But I talked to agency guy over in Utah.
And he was telling me that he does that.
Plus he does like a recruitment
thing, plus like a training thing
to implement specific technical
people on top of his services.
So I'm seeing a combination
of business models.
I can even see right now with the
SAS era, SAS went through it's
recession a couple of years back.
And I think right now, it's just getting
brutally difficult To grow SAS companies.
Cause everyone's copying and anyways,
that's a whole thing in itself.
But what I'm going to expect is that
we're going to see SAS players come
out through a consultative front end
where they do the consulting strategy.
And then the SAS is part of the
implementation plan and it's no longer
SAS pricing and I'm not sure if you
purchase software nowadays, like
everyone's either huddled up and said,
Hey, we're going to charge 700 bucks
a month minimum for all of our tools.
I'm like, what is going on here?
What happened to the 29,
30, a hundred bucks a month?
But all that to say is that I think that
the evolution of the business model is
going to go beyond just a core service.
It has to be something where you become
deeply embedded in the partner or in
the client that you're working with
or even what you're doing here is
combining two different business models.
The fractional implementation model, maybe
the strategic arm plus the community arm.
So share with me some of your
thoughts around that because
you're actually doing it
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Yeah, so.
I will say yes and all of my team
members that are gonna watch this later
or listen to it later will all giggle
because I use yes and, like, all the time.
Definitely comes from that improv
theater background Yes, I agree.
And I will say to every agency
owner listening to this, don't do
that until you really have that
core dialed in because that's where
we see every single one of them.
Break is that they have this big picture
vision of like all these different things
that they can do and they've got these
ideas of how that value can help their
customers But they don't even have their
core service or their core offering solid.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114:
dialed in with deliverables, LTV
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Yes.
so yeah 100 percent agree that ultimately
The better option is to expand and, and
this is where, again, we can be a little
creative with it because once you have
like your core service, you know, your
core offering really dialed in, you've
got all the playbooks, you've got things,
you know, really working like clockwork,
you know, and you're getting the feedback,
you know, from your team and from your
clients that they've got new ideas and
they're now they're starting to evolve the
actual service and the offering, not just
you, the owner, you know, and your inputs.
So like that to me is like, okay, now
you can look outside and be a little
creative because it could be that yes,
you have ancillary services or product
offerings, you know, that you can develop
and add, you know, as value ads, you
know, for your business to grow as well
as bring the value to your clients,
but it doesn't have to be just you.
Right.
It could be that you actually look
at it from a partner perspective.
I know a lot of agencies have
done this in the past with more
of the white label model, right?
They may say, okay, I want to offer this
particular service, you know, but we
don't have the right team in place or
the right tools or the right processes.
So we're just going to white label
it out, you know, and have another
company or another agency do that work.
Honestly, I'm seeing the trends.
That that's still viable, and the
customers really like transparency,
especially in this day and
age of using more generative.
a lot of customers we see from
our agency founders and some of
the feedback they're giving us.
And what we see, like, boots on the ground
with our ops managers, you know, is that.
The customers are asking like,
okay, who actually made this?
Did you do
that?
Like, where did this come from?
Right?
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114:
I had that yesterday.
So it's like, Oh, I edited.
So I was like, Whoa, that's good.
Is that you or AI?
I'm like, Oh, that was me.
It's like, Oh, good job.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Yes.
You know, and it's wild because I even
had, I'm getting probably a little more
paranoid now, you know, but even on like
some calls, even some zooms that I'm
having, I'm like, kind of looking around.
I'm like, is this, is this real?
Or is this
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: this
is time for me to come clean.
You've been talking to
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
Hey, you did a great job.
So it looks great.
But yeah, like I think genuinely,
you know, the greater public, you
know, is perking up and really
starting to notice, you know, and so
they're going to ask those questions.
And the more transparent and honest
agencies can be with them and say, yeah,
this is our policy on using generative AI.
This is how we've implemented it
in our systems
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114:
Then very few people even have
that Paul, like a policy on AI.
Like I did a training the other
day and like, You guys need to
have like an internal, like what's
allowable, what's not allowable
and what data can you upload?
Cause like, you know, you're, if you fork
over client data or financial data, like
you're literally giving it to the public,
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: 100%.
Yeah, it's so important.
And those are the pieces of the
puzzle that agency owners don't think
about their team doesn't think about.
And so that's again, the function
of the operator is to be able to
have that risk management function
that they can bring to the table and
say, hey, like, let's bring this.
to the forefront.
Let's talk about it.
Maybe we don't have an AI policy that
everybody agrees with right away.
That's okay.
It's iterative.
It's going to iterate legitimately.
There's going to be changes.
So have a rough draft.
We'll get something on paper.
Right?
And so absolutely.
I think there is more.
a slight impact with being transparent,
and being honest that people are
starting to move away from white
label a little bit, you know, and,
or if they continue it, it's not
under this white label anymore.
It's just like these
are, this is my partner.
And so,
how?
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: to
manage that relationship too.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Oh yeah,
because Instead of having this whole
telephone game, okay, the customer said
this, and then we brought it back to the
account manager, and then they talked
with the team, and then they talked
with the white label professionals,
and then you have to go back again.
And, in one of our agencies in, I
think it was in December when they were
doing their quarterlies, and it was
like end of year planning, and then
end of quarter, reflection as well.
They did a game that was a virtual
game, and it was kind of like
Pictionary meets, telephone game.
three steps in, easily,
it started changing.
Right?
All
the way
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: crazy.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Oh,
and it's with agencies that like we're
in there talking and teaching them
on like remote communication and, you
know, clarity, you know, in your written
format as well as your verbal format.
So there's always room to grow.
Let me just say and absolutely like if
you've got your core service offering,
you've got things dialed in and you want
to expand and truly add value or increase
the quality for the sake of that, not
for just like adding in, you know, a line
item to the invoices for clients, right?
Because if it's a money making,
you know, endeavor, and that's
the whole purpose of it, right?
Again, I'm going to put that on the
shelf with just the turn and burn.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: No,
there's a balance between a
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: yeah,
you can have incredible profits and
focus on quality at the same time.
And, and so, yeah, instead of
having it behind the scenes
or, you know, kind of under the
table, bring it out into the open.
And so if it's not you, meaning like
the agency itself with either the
team or hiring and finding other
individuals, maybe it's partnering with
other agencies that already have that.
Product dialed in.
Yeah.
And just start to collaborate.
You know, I think there's gonna be
more opportunities in the future
to keep collaborating and expand.
And I've been very lucky that, you know,
in our business, you know, we have 2
very distinct and Amazing audiences.
We've got the agency founders
that, God, I know we can help them.
We can get them back to having peace of
mind and true work life benefit, right?
And imbalance.
And then we've got the
operations professionals.
Who are almost always an agency
is the only one of their kind.
They're living out on an island, right?
They're doing everything themselves.
And very similar to the agency owner,
they don't always know what they're doing.
They're making it up as they
go along because they have to.
They're creative.
They're problem solvers.
They're go getters.
They're driven to fulfill the
vision of that agency owner.
And that's where, like, our
community comes in is it's actually
specific to those operators.
Because a lot of agency founders, there
are tons of amazing communities for them.
And who knows where it'll grow for
us, you know, in the future as well,
because we've got amazing agency
founders that we'd love to connect.
But we have the community for the
operators, and then we've got the
fractional services specifically
for the agency founders.
And then I'll give you a sneak peek,
you know, that throughout this year,
we're also building out our programs and
having more opportunities where those
two individuals can be in the same room
and start sharing the same language
and learning together.
So we're going to master classes,
boot camps, like, all that kind of
stuff, but It's in the works that's
coming in 2025 for us as well.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Yeah, I mean,
that goes back to the original point.
You created a flywheel to add more
value, and it's a symbiotic relationship
to both parties and the market.
So, I love that.
Leia, where can people go to want
to thank you for being on and also
learn more about what you're up to?
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
Definitely check me out on LinkedIn.
That's where I'm most active.
As you can find me at
Leah Leaves on LinkedIn.
Or just search for Alderaan.
There's not a lot of Alderaans out there.
Alderaan Operations Solutions.
The other is our website,
which is alderaan.
com.
And if anyone hasn't
recognized the relationship of
Alderaan, I'll share it now.
So Alderaan is Princess Leia's
home planet in Star Wars.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: It's not
a trap, is what she's trying to say.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114: Exactly.
raul-_1_01-09-2025_100114: Oh, man.
Leia, I love all of our conversations.
I appreciate for being on,
and we'll go from here.
Thank you.
leah-leaves_1_01-09-2025_110114:
Thank you.
This was such a blast.
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