TLDR;
This video explains why digital service businesses often plateau and how to overcome growth limitations by understanding and optimizing business systems. It emphasizes the importance of contingency systems, identifying and resolving blockages that cause stalling, and effectively using hiring and automation to create orchestration. The video also touches on the different types of employees and how to test their skills during the hiring process.
- Contingency systems are crucial for visualizing business processes and identifying dependencies.
- Stalling occurs when there is a blockage in one of the contingency systems, hindering overall business growth.
- Orchestration, achieved through strategic hiring and automation, is essential for maximizing throughput and maintaining consistent system performance.
Intro [0:00]
Daniel Fazio introduces the video's focus on why businesses, particularly digital service companies like agencies, B2B offers, and coaching services, often hit a ceiling in their growth and revenue. He briefly mentions his background, running Client Ascension and List, with Client Ascension currently generating $1.2 to $1.4 million per month. The video will cover visualizing contingency systems, understanding what stalling actually is, and the role of hiring and automation in overcoming these challenges.
Contingency Systems [0:43]
The video explains that a business's fulfillment process resembles a manufacturing facility, comprising sequential steps where each step is contingent upon the completion of the previous one. Using a cold email lead generation agency as an example, the steps include domain registration, inbox setup, lead list building, script writing, email sending, and inbox management. Each step's input depends on the completion of the preceding step. This concept applies not only to fulfillment but also to marketing and sales, where each area consists of its own interconnected contingency systems. For instance, a YouTube marketing system involves outlining, filming, editing, and posting videos, all sequentially linked. Sales calls also follow a contingency system, including calendar booking, pre-call activities, the call itself, proposal generation, and onboarding. The business operates as a system of systems, where marketing, sales, and fulfillment are all contingent upon one another, each with its own set of contingency systems.
How to Stop Stalling [5:16]
Stalling occurs when a business is capped out and unable to grow further due to blockages within its contingency systems. The four key skills needed to grow a digital services business are lead generation (marketing), sales, fulfillment/client management, and hiring/automation. Mastering these skills increases the probability of substantial financial success. Hiring and automation enable the creation of orchestration, which ensures maximum throughput in each system. Stalling is identified as a blockage in any system, whether sales, marketing, or fulfillment, that prevents high-volume throughput. This blockage can manifest as an inability to fulfill more clients, close sales, or generate leads. If any single point in the business is blocked, the entire system stalls, similar to a stick blocking a wheel. Resolving these blockages through hiring or automation is key to solving business problems and continuing growth. Businesses often fail due to not creating systems and failing to create orchestration around the system.
Automation & Hiring [10:40]
Hiring involves two types of people: task doers and those with "agency" or "figure it the [ __ ] out ability." The latter can independently solve problems and find solutions, while the former require specific instructions. Bill Gates' saying about hiring the laziest person refers to those with figure-it-out ability who automate tasks to reduce manual labor. When hiring, it's important to test candidates for the specific skills needed for the role. For example, a content agency hiring an editor should test editing skills, while a manager needs figure-it-out ability for client communication, hiring, and performance management. People with agency are high-IQ individuals who cost more but provide more leverage through orchestration. Automation should be implemented wherever possible without degrading quality or consistency. Examples of automation in the speaker's business include opt-in pages with automated email and text flows, application processes with lead scoring, and pre-scheduled email marketing.
Orchestration Examples [16:35]
The video provides examples of orchestration systems in the speaker's business. The content system involves ideating YouTube videos, filming, editing, scheduling, writing emails based on the videos, creating Instagram posts, and making YouTube community posts. Each step is assigned to specific team members, ensuring the system works as long as everyone does their job. The ad system includes ad scripts, filming, editing, uploading to the ads manager, and media buying, with responsibilities divided among team members. When feeling lost, the speaker advises mapping out all the boxes in the business's operating system and focusing on completing those boxes through personal effort, hiring, or automation. The video concludes with a promotion of AI-assisted agency and Olympia programs, offering assistance with starting a profitable online agency and scaling to signing 20-40 clients per month, respectively.
