# The #1 Reason Creative Agency Owners Burn Out (And How to Fix It with Systems)

Channel: Creative Agency Success
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyabFHt9skI
Duration: 19 min
Language: English
Words: 3535
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/SyabFHt9skI

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[0:00] There's a belief system really that's really prevalent in agency owner world that the more systems actually creates blocks puts me in a box so then I'm not able to be as creative I'm not able to be as scrappy and the reality is is that in order for you to be creative you actually need the space to be creative but if every minute of every day is completely filled with things that you need to do it becomes an impossibility for you to actually be creative [Music] Hey everyone. So, in today's episode, I wanted to dig into something that I think will probably hit home for most of

[0:48] you agency owners, and that's burnout. But instead of looking at burnout as like a mindset issue or a workload problem, we're going to talk about what's really at the root of burnout and overwhelm for most creative agency owners. And that's a lack of systems. Burnout to me often shows up when everything ultimately depends on you as the owner. When you're the keeper of all the knowledge, the final checkpoint, the final decision maker. And while passion can get you quite far without the right system in place, the passion can turn into pressure. That pressure can turn into overwhelm. That overwhelm can turn into eventually burnout. The good news,

[1:30] in my opinion, is that there is a better way. There's a way for you to not be in that place. And so we're going to explore how smart, simple systems, validation processes, checklists, and communication frameworks can give you back a lot of your time, reduce some of that decision fatigue that we can experience, and keep your agency moving forward without you needing to be involved in every single little detail

[1:52] actually creating for that overwhelm. One of the first things that I just want to talk about is my perception at the very least of burnout is it's not necessarily just about doing too much. And while that can be a component of it, it's about kind of holding on to too much. So the reality, at least in my experience when reaching these places of overwhelm is that the reality is is that I was holding on to too much. I was holding responsibility for too much. And I wasn't actually passing on any of that responsibility to anyone else. And so as that responsibility piled, it became more and more and more and more. And it

[2:26] became that block in the funnel. And so when everything relies upon you as the agency owner, as the business owner, decisions are going to pile up. Urgency is going to feel rather constant. You're going to need to be able to respond back very quickly to the team. You're going to feel like you always need to be on because you do. Because each person is dependent upon you to move the project forward, to respond to a client, to handle that crisis, to handle that thing. And there's no other means of making that choice aside from talking to you. We don't have a way, a framework, a decision-making tree that allows for

[3:07] them to move things forward without you in so many instances. And in my own experience, the thing that was the essential kind of catalyst to this to begin with, and this might be true for you, it might not be, was that there was a piece to it that I actually quite enjoyed being needed. And so there was a lot of pieces that I was creating in the business to make it so that I was needed and that I did actually have to be that decision maker because there was a piece of it that made me feel important that made me feel needed and as we are all

[3:39] are human sometimes I don't like to admit that I am that that is a very human response that we do all want to be needed. We do all want to feel important. And as time progresses, as your business grows, it is going, that definition of importance, that definition of being needed is going to require a different version of you. It is going to require you to become a new version of yourself. To walk into version 7.5 or 11.2 or whatever version of yourself you're currently on, but moving into that next version. The reality is is that lack of structure often kind of masquerades this idea is

[4:17] that we're scrappy or that we're being creative or that we're being this or that we're being that and that this is a necessary phase of being in business. And that to grow means to sacrifice a bit of myself. And the reality is is that as it happens, as that narrative continues to play, we will continue to give more and more and more of ourselves every single day. As a business continues to grow, it's going to need a different piece of you. And so that means more. And the following week, it continues to grow and needs another part of you. So more. But as you never let

[4:51] anything go, eventually your cup will overflow. And you're trying to hold it all together somehow knowing that you just don't have the capacity. You don't have the mental capacity. You don't have the time capacity. You don't have the will capacity. You don't have the energy capacity. the decision-making fatigue in and of itself by itself is real something that I experience now today that the reality is is that there's some of the weight of some of the decisions that we make are really big and that can become quite draining and knowing that there's only so much of you to give and where are you actually needed and I want

[5:31] you to start to think about that as we have conversations throughout all of this is how much of what it is that you are doing necessary for you to be able to take the business forward. And how much have you then has the business outgrown that process, that system, that need for you? And what are the most valuable things that you are ultimately

[5:53] involved with? What can you let go of? What are you still controlling that you shouldn't be in control of anymore? And speaking as a many many many year recovering control freak, this is a very difficult thing to overcome, a very difficult lesson to learn, but a very necessary one if you do want to

[6:15] continue to grow your business. Otherwise, you will become that wall, that glass ceiling of growth because you only have so much time and eventually you will tap out. The reality is, and I've seen this happen many instances for many entrepreneurs of reaching actual full burnout where they weren't able to get out of bed. And you may think, and if you haven't experienced it, this actually real. Some of the most motivated, energetic, driven people that

[6:43] I know were driven to that point. Fortunately, I have never experienced it myself have experienced some symptoms of pieces of it, but never drove myself to that point. I hope that you never experience that. And I hope that you're able through some of the conversation today and others that you're able to prevent that from happening for yourself. So one of the first things I want to talk about is the systems really. And so systems aren't the enemy of creativity. In my viewpoint, they're the enabler of it. Because the reality is is that if you're focused so much on so much of the administrative pieces of your business, you don't actually have

[7:18] the space to be creative anyways. And the reality is is that for so many agency owners that I talked to, they started their agency largely by accident. They are a creative, enjoyed being a creative their whole lives and they got one project maybe even for a friend and then they got another and another and another and another. It's a

[7:37] time old story of agency ownership. There's a belief system really that's really prevalent in agency owner world that the more systems actually creates blocks puts me in a box so then I'm not able to be as creative I'm not able to be as scrappy and the reality is is that in order for you to be creative you actually need the space to be creative but every if every minute of every day is completely filled with things that you need to do it becomes an impossibility for you to actually be creative for you to actually be able to push the work forward If you are still leading creative within

[8:12] your agency and whether that creativity is manifested in strategy, whether that creativity is manifested in design, doesn't matter. The reality is is that in order for you to be creative to solve these challenges, you need to have space. And so when you have clear systems, people don't need to ask you what to do next. You don't need to be involved in every decision. You don't have to be there for every single person. systems can allow for you to be able to lead more strategically instead of operating reactively. And it's vital for you to be able to start to create these base systems. And they can be

[8:47] simple. They can be more complex. And over time, they will become more and more as you continue to grow and as you replace more and more of yourself, as you become less and less involved. And the best built system in my viewpoint does a couple of things. It allows for someone to have a reminder of the things that they need to do so that we have comfort that each item is ultimately getting done and will be done. It also has a check and balance that allows for us to feel comfortable that it is being done and even potentially some oversight. And so if there's items, there's areas of your business that you

[9:23] do not feel comfortable letting go of entirely. So let's say as an example, accounting, paying bills, money going out. So let's say that someone is entering the bill, they are even reviewing the initial thing to make sure that the work was done and it comes to you for a final approval and payment. And so just that final piece, but it removes the four or five steps that you are having to be involved with beforehand. And so it it can even be done in those kind of areas that a lot of agency owners really hold on to to that final moment. And I've seen that happen in the 56 7 million agencies

[9:56] where the owner is still doing a lot of the accounting stuff. And the reality is because it feels very uncomfortable. So the best built system and the purpose of me saying that was that you have reminders of step-by-step process that that person needs to follow in order to actually do it. I don't like leaving things to memory. And then for items that are more sensitive, having a mechanism by which to monitor and see and validate that something is done correctly and something that is done validly, especially in those very sensitive areas. So let's talk about the different types of systems and go into them a little bit more. So the

[10:31] validation kind of processes. So the the piece that I find really useful here is this kind of rules check so things don't move move forward without being fully vetted. So as an example, something that has become a challenge for an existing client right now is like little things got missed. a form didn't fire, didn't deliver in a website uh development, didn't fire and actually deliver the contact us form to the client. And that was going on for several months and the

[10:59] client was unhappy and reasonably so. And so there's like little things that we need to validate this item that we need to make sure actually fully worked. And so what are the things that we need to validate ultimately happened? And what are the parameters? What are the rules? Do we have multiple people make sure that that happened? Do we have a checks and balance in place to make sure that it happened? Which leads me to the next the checklist. I mean when you think about it I mean the reality and I forget what book it was that did that highlighted this particular component in healthcare but that hospitals before

[11:31] inputting checklists would often do the surgery on the wrong person would potentially remove the wrong limb and it was simply do and so you have very highly intelligent very highly trained individuals that are making very simple mistakes because of a checklist and the reality is is and I like to hold myself in relatively high esteem in this regard as well like I've got a great memory but the reality is I can't remember everything and nor am I going to that if it doesn't actually go into a list for me to do something I am going to forget not everything but some things there will be things that will fall through

[12:03] the cracks and some of the things are going to be important and so what are those checklists that we need to do in the prior example that I was saying with the form is that it needs to be developed it needs to be put in place it needs to be tested we need to confirm that it delivered to the client and then maybe it needs to be reviewed by someone else to make sure that it also happened and so those checklists are vital It allows for the person to know exactly

[12:23] what needs to happen every single time. Marking it complete, making sure that it was done so that it isn't left memory. And it makes it simple to follow. If you want to do this checklist on the highest level of degree of validity and being able to support the team is putting a training of exactly how to do each piece, each little portion of the checklist of how they go about validating each piece. Some of them are relatively small, so maybe you don't need one. But little videos are very simple things that you can create as you

[12:56] go through and develop the system. Making it very easy for the person doing this maybe for the first time and even for the 20th that needs to be reminded of exactly how it needs to be done, of how to go and do it. Reminding them of what needs to be done, allowing for you to have comfort that there is a system in place reminding people to do the things that need to be done. Otherwise, I I like to tout this because I do really enjoy my sleep is that this gives me comfort personally that something is going to get done because there is a checklist in place that allows for it to

[13:27] be validated and allows for it to be done. It doesn't rely upon memory and so that I can go to sleep soundly at night knowing that things and that there's systems in place that are putting and validating and making sure the things that are important and every single little error that happens checklists are updated processes are updated allowing for each one of those opportunities that presents itself in the form of an error in the form of a problem to solve for my future systems. And then the thing that is one of the most important areas that I find as well is in communication frameworks. So clarity on what's to be

[14:02] communicated, where it's to be communicated, when it's to be communicated. So one of the things that I see very frequently causing a whole lot of pain for a lot of agencies is the use of Slack. And there's a whole lot of time Slack, email, but communication becoming a massive amount of distraction. And so there's either

[14:20] undercommunication or overcommunication. not the right amount of information at the right time so that your team can actually do their work. So what is the response rate that I'm expecting to email? What is the frequency of response rate that I'm expecting in Slack? Two prefixes on the things that we send over. So like no reply needed or reply when ready or FYI to the things that

[14:40] we're sending over to team members. utilizing project management as the primary source of communication, not actually having to look through 12 different pieces of communication to try to find where does this information belong, where should it live, and making sure that people are communicating in the right channels so that people have the right information. So incredibly vital. The amount of time that we all spend communicating with each other, communicating with colleagues, communicating with clients, and yet we don't actually have a mechanism by which to distill this, a place by which it's actually done. And even worse so in some examples we have a different communication framework for every single

[15:16] client or every single team member that becomes incredibly difficult to manage. So the reality of how I see this world is that these systems can let you step out without losing the feeling of control. It can empower your team members to own processes with confidence. It can reduce the dependency upon you the owner for approvals or decision-m as we are able to actually have the framework by which a decision is made the point in which you need to be brought in or if you need to be brought in building resilience in your business so that it's not fragile for when you're not available becomes a truly operating machine. It's not just a

[15:52] job. It's not a hobby. It's a business that functions allows for things to actually continue on. The reality is is that so many agency owners, as we were discussing right at the be beginning of this episode, is that they create their agency and resist structure. They think it'll slow them down. It'll make it harder. And in some instances, it maybe does, but for good cause, for good reason, to make sure that these little errors do not happen. Sometimes going

[16:20] slower allows for you to arrive faster. Is that if you're going too fast around a curve, guess what? you will go off the rails. And the same thing is true for your business. The same thing is true for your agency. Sometimes going slower is a little faster. In fact, I was having a training this week with agency owners in the accelerator. We were talking about how to actually launch a project effectively, how to actually invest appropriately into your team at the start and how much impact that actually has of to projects and how clients that do it really well, that launch their projects well are the ones

[16:53] really more consistently the ones that are on budget on timeline because they actually invested. They went slower to start so they can actually speed up in the process. not having to do work multiple times, not having to course correct designers, not having to try to fix things after they've gone off the rails, making sure that it just doesn't go off the rails to begin with. So, the reality is that the absence of systems is going to cause you more delays. It's going to cause you more breakdowns. It's going to cause more rework. It's going to cause you sleepless nights. Systems can be somewhat restrictive, but generally speaking, they're not. They

[17:27] give creative people and businesses guardrails, not cages. But those guardrails are important for every single one of us. And the reality is that building these systems don't need to be complex. They can start with the predominant thing that's causing delays, breakdowns in your business today. The things that are that pain in your side right now, but involve your team. Make sure that they own and understand how things should be actually done and that it's clearly defined. because if they don't understand it, they cannot follow it. Start small. Just do one, maybe just one checklist or one process, one training video. Burnout isn't just a

[18:04] capacity issue. It is a systems issue. And if you are feeling consistently overwhelmed, exhausted, or like you can just never fully unplug, it's probably time to stop blaming your calendar and start looking at your structure. The things that you're still holding on to, the systems that put you in the place that you are today can help you or detract from you being able to reduce stress. They can allow for your agency to run more smoothly, grow more sustainably, and ultimately give you

[18:35] back your freedom. [Music]

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