The CRAVE approach to successful agency leadership with Dr. Amin Sanaia

Speaker 1:

It doesn’t matter what kind of an agency you run, traditional, digital, media buying, web dev, PR, whatever your focus, you still need to run a profitable business. The Build A Better Agency podcast presented by White Label IQ, will show you how to make more money and keep more of what you make. Let us help you build an agency that is sustainable, scalable, and if you want down the road, sellable. Bringing his 25 plus years of experience as both an agency owner and agency consultant, please welcome your host, Drew McClellan.

Speaker 2:

Hey everybody. Drew McClellan here with Agency Management Institute. Good to see you again in air quotes. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Build A Better Agency. I’m excited about this topic. I always love talking about leadership, which is where we’re going to go today. But before I tell you about our guest, before we dig into that conversation, I just want to remind you that, and I know you probably already know this, but I’m getting really excited. We are counting the days. Actually, I’m recording this in mid-February, so we’re only three months away from, right? February, March, April, May, yeah, three months away from the Build A Better Agency. It’s actually May 16th and 17th, and I cannot wait to see you in person. I cannot wait to interact with you. I am all about the hugs, so bring them. But I’m just really excited that we get to come back together, learn together, laugh together, create connections.

I was just talking to somebody on a coaching call today and he was telling me about a partnership that he put together at the summit. He just happened to be sitting next to somebody in one of the sessions, they started talking and now they are partnering with each other and they are working together and all just because of the summit, which I really love. So please join us. Head over to the agencymanagementinstitute.com website, click on the Build A Better Agency summit button in the upper left. Grab your ticket before we sell out, before they go up in price and join us. I promise you, it’s a game changer and if you feel like you wasted your time or it wasn’t your thing, you come talk to me about it and I will give you your money back because I am that confident that you’re going to love it.

With that said, let me tell you a little bit about our guest. So Dr. Amin Sanaia has a PhD in leadership and he is an expert in how we can create a workforce that is strong and vibrant and collaborative. And so he has a whole methodology, he just wrote a book. He has a whole methodology around how we can create that kind of work environment for our team. I think you’re going to love the conversation and there’s going to be plenty of really practical tips for you. So you might want to grab a pen and a pad of paper or, and if you’re driving or on a treadmill, don’t do that, but you might want to take some notes or make at least some mental notes and put some of this stuff in place. So, all right, let’s get to the conversation, shall we? Amin, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for having me, Drew. I really appreciate the opportunity.

Speaker 2:

So leadership is I think an age-old conversation and certainly we have gone through the paces lately with COVID and the shift in the way we work, whether we’re in an office or working remote or hybrid. But at the end of the day, I don’t care what the business is, but certainly for our audience of agency owners, how you lead your business is critical to your business’s success. In our world, we don’t have a lot of equipment, we don’t have a lot of machinery. The most important asset we have in our business are our people. Without them, we cannot deliver our services. So super excited to have you here today. Super excited to have the conversation about this topic. So do me a favor and tell the listeners a little bit about your background, how you came to have this expertise, and then I have a ton of questions for you.

Speaker 3:

Sure. Great. So as you mentioned in your introduction, people are at the heart of what we do. So when you work in providing a service or you’re taking care of someone, people become your number one asset and they’re vital to what you do. In my experience, I volunteer at a retirement community early on as a teenager. That’s how I got introduced into a leadership type of position as I was in charge of the youth group and we go there and I just got drawn in to the people interaction and how the way you interact with them and the things that you can do for people that sometimes they can’t do for themselves becomes vital. So I decided to make it a career. I got into healthcare as an administrator, became an executive, and I started reading a lot. I was eager about learning about behavioral, how do you get the most out of people? Because when you work in that type of setting, it’s all about people, the people you’re taking care of, but also the people that you’re leading.

So if you lead people the right way, guess what? You’re going to be able to be successful in the service type industry. So I read a lot. First I started reading about it with Jim Collins, later on I really got into John Maxwell to the point that I went through his certification. So now I’m a John Maxwell certified coach, trainer, speaker. And that’s how I’ve shaped a lot of my leadership skills and knowledge. Later on in my career, I got a master’s in healthcare administration, but now I also have a doctor. So I have a doctor in leadership, and that is something that I’m really fond of because it gives me the opportunity to really impact people’s lives on a daily basis. I found that that was my calling. So that is my purpose in life. So I do what I love and what my God-given talent allows me to.

Speaker 2:

It is rewarding to do work that you love, that’s for sure. So you recently wrote a book about leadership. What made you think that you wanted to write a book and what about your book is different than all the other leadership books out there?

Speaker 3:

So I did just recently published my book. I was eager to really to figure out, how do I share my knowledge? So having a 30 year career, 30 plus year career, and leading people, well, I should be able to share some of this stuff, especially since my dissertation was on leadership development, specifically in healthcare. But it does-

Speaker 2:

… skills.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely, absolutely. So I decided to really take my experiences and what I found through building teams, what are the attributes that leaders that are the most successful, what do they have? And that’s what really my book is about, is it has the acronym of crave and it’s basically communication, respect, authenticity, vulnerability and empathy. These attributes and leading hundreds of teams have really shown that it really impacts the organization, but more so impacts what you deliver to the people that you’re serving.

Speaker 2:

So let’s talk a little bit about what you see as an authentic leader and a great leader. Why are so many people not good at this? Because you would think, everybody says, well, I want to be a good communicator and I respect people and I want to be authentic. You would think based on what people say and how we feel about ourselves and how we want to project ourselves to other people, I don’t think most people want to be a bad leader, but there are a lot of bad leaders out there. So what gets in our way of being a great leader?

Speaker 3:

So before I answer that question, I want to say this. What I found in working in different industries, while the bulk of my experience has been in working in the corporate America has been in healthcare, I’ve done a lot of consulting in other types of businesses. What I’ve found is that when these companies see someone that it’s doing their job that is really good at their job, guess what? Well, now you’re going to get a promotion, you’re going to be a manager. You’re like, okay, hold on a second though.

Speaker 2:

Whole new skillset.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, exactly. And then if you’re okay at being a manager, well, now you’re a director, now you’re a leader. You can’t do that for different reasons. The most important reason is because when you’re a super worker, you’re really good at what you do. You’re a specialist. So guess what? That’s what your talent is. When you’re in the management and you’ll become a manager or a director, now you’re a leader, that’s a different skillset set that you need as you’re not in the weeds, you’re not a super worker. You have to figure out a way, how do you motivate your teams to really be impactful? And those are two very different skillsets. So that’s how organizations end up with people in the wrong positions because hey, because you’re here on time and you go above and beyond. Now you can become a manager. No, you can’t.

You still need some professional training and some educational to go with that to allow those people to really be able to lean on something, because the first time you’re a manager and you run into a situation when you have a team member or employee that is not doing their job or having confrontations with other team members, how do you deal with that? Well, if you don’t have any professional training or any experience or any education on it, what do you lean on? There’s nothing for you to lean on, because you don’t have that. So it’s important that you’re able to really get those skillsets first before you actually really get into those positions. And that’s what happens.

Now, when we talk about authenticity, it’s important that we allow people to be themselves. So we’ve learned through the last three years, being in through a pandemic, it’s just unheard of that people are really looking for something else at work. They’re not just going to work to go to work. There has to be a purpose. So we’ve read that right on the news everywhere that people, the great resignation, why? Because people don’t feel a calling. They don’t feel, why am I going to work? And what happens is that they have leaders or managers that are really not fulfilling that and not showing what the purpose is for their work and how that work that they’re doing serves a purpose. So whether you’re selling cars or manufacturing widgets or taking care of a person’s life, your job is important. So the leader has to be able to show that vision that ultimately what you’re doing is valuable to society because of this.

So authenticity for me, that’s what hits home. How do you get people to allow them to be themselves, but also how do you let them bring them their whole self to work? So for example, let me ask you a question, Drew, in your life, so are you one person during the morning before you go to work, and then when you go to work, you just turn the switch and now you’re a different person?

Speaker 2:

Nope.

Speaker 3:

And then… No, you’re not. So you’re lucky.

Speaker 2:

Nope.

Speaker 3:

When you hire someone-

Speaker 2:

I don’t know how to do that. I know some people try to do that. I don’t know how to do that. I can’t show up other than how I show up. And I know that some people love that and other people say, nah, he’s not for me. Which is okay. Yep.

Speaker 3:

So what happens when you have someone that doesn’t have the skillset of a leader is that they’ll tell their employees, oh, when you come to work, it’s showtime, you have to put on your new face, or no, when you hire someone, you’re hiring the whole person. You’re not hiring what is on the resume or what’s on paper, you’re hiring that person, their personal experiences, their upbringing. So if you don’t figure that out and get to know people and what triggers them, what they like, what they don’t like, guess what? You are not going to get the best out of that person. So you have to allow them to be their authentic self, obviously within the ream of the job that’s being delivered. But you have to let them bring that because that’s how you get the best out of the person when they feel that they can be themselves.

Speaker 2:

As I’m listening to you talk, I certainly am hearing the theme of servant leadership, and I think a lot of people embrace that idea, but there’s also the balance to that. Being a servant leader and really understanding that you’re there to serve and support your employees is one thing, but one of the things I hear agency owners say all the time is, I don’t know what is left to give my people. I can’t seem to make them happy. No matter how much I pay them, no matter how many great benefits we have, we have all this professional development for them. Whatever they ask for, I pretty much serve up on a platter, servant leader, but I can’t seem to make them happy. And in today’s environment, I’m afraid to call them out to be authentic, to talk to them about performance issues because I’m afraid they’re going to leave.

And it’s so hard to find new employees now that I will tolerate mediocre behavior or mediocre performance rather than have a candid conversation. So how does somebody show up as a servant leader, but still run their business profitably, make sure that they have disciplinary conversations and mentorship conversations around course corrections and improvements with employees? How does somebody find the balance in that?

Speaker 3:

That’s a great question, Drew. So one of the things that I learned midway through my career was that no matter how much I read or how many people I talked to, there’s other tools that you need to have in your bag as a leader in order to be successful. So one of the things that I really leaned on was behavioral assessment, and one of the things that I’m actually certified on is predictive index. That’s a behavioral assessment that allows you to hire the right candidate and really work with them to help in creating some development plans throughout the life cycle. So when leaders or agency owners look at the opportunity of, okay, I have an open position, how do I really hire the right person? Well, don’t just go by your gut feeling or what looks right in the resume. Use tools that are available to you to match the personality, because that’s what you’re hiring. You’re not hiring… Anybody can put words on paper.

I’m not saying that people are going to lie on that, but the chances are that in a two, three minute conversation or say a 20 minute conversation, you’re not going to know what you’re getting. Now, if you go with tools like behavioral assessments, that gives you a better idea of when they’re put in certain situations, how people are going to react, so that’s giving you a better opportunity of hiring the right person for what you’re looking for. So what you do is you use these assessments, you tell them this is… You rank them in different boxes, and you say, this is what I’m looking for for this role. Guess what? As people apply, they do these behavioral assessments, the ones that are closest to what you’re looking for, guess what? That’s what you really are going to be hiring. So that gives you a good opportunity.

So that’s one, being able to hire the right person. If you hire the right person, then you’re good. Now, during the interview process, you want to make sure that you as a leader, you bring your authentic self and you set the tone and really, Hey, listen, this is our culture. This is who we are, or this is my agency. This is how things are here. We are honest. We’re going to give you feedback, good, bad, or indifferent, but this is who we are. So you know upfront what you’re getting into. So if you have those honest conversations upfront and you do your background upfront by doing behavioral assessments, you’re going to have a better chance of hiring the right person versus otherwise if you just go by an application and what looks right on paper and just by a 20, 30 minute conversation.

So if you do that upfront and you carry out as a servant leader the way you are and make sure you set the right culture, you’re going to be successful more often than not. Now, that’s not foolproof. Nothing is foolproof or a hundred percent correct, but that gives you a better leverage into being successful, hiring the right people so that you can keep the right people.

Speaker 2:

So let’s talk about keeping the right people. So again, we’re in a moment when agencies are struggling to find good employees, their employees are being poached left and right, they’re being offered huge amounts of money to leave the agency. Some of them are coming back to the agency and asking for more money. How in an environment like this where basically the employer is at a disadvantage, there’s more jobs out there than there are people who want the jobs, and in our world who does the work is critically important. So we have to hire the right people, we want to retain the right people. How do you find a balance of honoring what the employee’s asking for, whether it’s benefits or time off or they want to work from home or whatever it is, and also sticking to the way you want to run your business, being profitable in running your business so you can keep paying people. So how does somebody find the balance of that when you can’t possibly give your employees everything that they’re asking for?

Speaker 3:

Well, the first thing you want to do is you want to pull or survey your people in your industry, not only in your agency, but in your industry. So you want to see that, what are those French benefits? Because not-

Speaker 2:

Well, and actually we do a salary and benefit survey every year. So anybody listening to this podcast would have access to that. So they’re like a thousand agencies talking about what the benefits are and all of that. So have a source document that says, here’s what’s normal.

Speaker 3:

Exactly. So you don’t want to be the highest paying or the lowest paying. You want to be within their range. That’s the first thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Second, look at what are the French benefits that these people are looking for in your group, in your industry? What is it that they’re looking for? Are they looking for some flexible options as far as work life balance? If it’s that, then you want to build a program around that. But I think what I know from, again, from experience working in the healthcare industry, but also working with other companies that I consult with usually comes down to one thing. Who is the leader? Whoever they’re reporting to, that’s who they leave. They don’t leave the agency, they don’t leave X, Y, Z company. They leave that person they’re reporting to. So if you want to look at why your turnover is high, look at the person they’re reporting to. And if you will ultimately find what the issue is and either upscale that person or find someone that’s going to be a true leader and really put some programs around that, invest some money in leadership development, that is the best money you can spend, because you’re going to be spending your wheels.

It costs on average to replace an employee anywhere from 10 to $15,000, the cost of hiring, recruiting, onboarding, and when they leave, and the loss of work. So why don’t you instead of per employee that leaves, multiply that and use a fraction of that and invest on your leaders and invest on leadership development, and you’ll see how your culture will change drastically.

Speaker 2:

Okay. But I’m a great leader and my people want things from me that I can’t afford to give them. How do I handle that?

Speaker 3:

Well, that again, that’s where we go to, we got to look at what is it? Because it’s not just money. It’s not just money, it’s not, really it’s not. I can tell you, I’ve done this so long, and you look at that, I can tell you in the healthcare industry, for example, the great resignation, millions of nurses retire or left the industry altogether because they didn’t want to deal with COVID or they didn’t want to deal with their bosses or whatever. So guess what? People started throwing money at the problems.

Well, no, there were some successful companies that didn’t have to throw money at the problem. What they did was one created some benefits package that included some retention bonuses, but they didn’t have to drastically increase their salaries, but also allow them some flexible time off. Gave them some French benefits that if we are successful and we’re able to meet these goals, guess what? You get to participate in sharing some of these profits. So it was not always about increasing your salaries, there were other French benefits that were allowed. So that for sure works. It’s not always about paying the highest salary.

Speaker 2:

All right. So I want to ask you a little bit more about the crave methodology or ingredients. First, we’re going to take a quick break and then we’ll come right back and chat about some of those.

Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to make sure that you are thinking about how to connect with your clients by figuring out what they love and maybe a few things that they’re not so crazy about with your agency. So at AMI one of the things we offer are client satisfaction surveys, we do both quantitative and qualitative. So an online survey, but also interviews with some of your key clients, and then we come back to you with trends, recommendations, what they love, what they don’t love, lots of insights around how you can create an even tighter relationship with your clients. So if you have interest in that, you can go under how we help tab on the AMI website and very bottom choice on how we help tab is the client satisfaction surveys.

You can read more about it, but whether you have us do it or you do it yourself or you hire somebody else, it is really critical that you be talking to your clients about what they love and what they wish was different or better. So do not miss the opportunity to tighten your relationship with your client whether we help you or not. All right? All right. Let’s get back to the show. All right, we are back and we’re talking about leadership. So when I think about the acronym CRAVE, communication, respect, authenticity, vulnerability, and empathy. I suspect there are some people listening who are saying, you know what? That’s just not me. I am private, I’m introverted. I don’t talk about my feelings. I’m not touchy, feely. How do I show up as a great leader if I’m wired that way if these are the things that are expected of me? How do I demonstrate vulnerability without violating my own model or code or style of communication?

Speaker 3:

That’s a great question, Drew, that I’ve been asked many of times. So one of the things that I did early on in my career, because I faced that and I used to be very introvert, private person, and no, I don’t want you to know anything about me, but guess what? I was not relatable. In order for you to be relatable to your people, you have to put yourself in vulnerable positions. That doesn’t mean you’re going to tell everybody what you did last night. What you can do to start off with is make a joke about yourself, or if you made a mistake, acknowledge to your team, Hey, listen, yesterday, oh my God, I didn’t have a good day. I did this wrong. Now you become relatable and people are like, okay, so you are human just like us, and you create that environment that is safe where it’s like, okay, if you make a mistake, just don’t make it twice. Okay.

Learn from your mistake and kind of lead that way where you’re open with your people. That doesn’t mean that you have to tell them everything personally about you, but you’re being vulnerable because you’re telling on yourself, Hey, I made a mistake. It’s okay. I have to learn from it.

Speaker 2:

Let’s talk about the empathy piece for… I think this came through so loud and clear during COVID when leaders were really dealing with all kinds of, their employees were struggling with family issues, they had health issues. The mental health issues that were dealing with in the workplace today are super challenging. How do you think an agency, an owner or a leader needs to show up in terms of empathy? And where’s the line with empathy? Can you go too far? Can you be too empathetic? Can you be too in your employee’s personal business and all of their stuff? Or is everything fair game?

Speaker 3:

You can go too far? I’ll answer that last piece before I answer the first piece of the first part of the question. So when I talk about empathy, yes, well, empathy means, you want to put yourself in your employee’s shoes. We have to look at people with their backgrounds, their upbringings, their current situations. For example, if you have single parents, that’s a tough situation, man, and that is real. So you have people that are single parents, and guess what? If you’re not a single parent, think about this. You wake up, your kid is acting up. That’s kids. That’s what they do. Whether they’re sick or not, they’re acting up, they’re making you late. You have to try to figure out a way to get them off to school or get them off to a sibling so that you can start your day.

Now, if you’re responsible, you’re feeling horrible because you’re not being able to be on time. And on top of that, when you get to work, now you have your boss not happy with you because you’re late. Well, how about we just ask, Hey, I noticed that you’re usually on time, but you’re late. How can I help you? Is there something going on that I can help you with? If you do that, guess what? Again, you become relatable, you become human, and now you’re showing that empathy. So when I talk about empathy, that’s what I talk about. Really, how do we not cross the line? But when you see the people that you work with, when you work with them every day for months, you already know their habits. So you know when someone is struggling or not. If they’re struggling, just go up to them, Hey, listen, I’m not sure what’s going on, but there’s something wrong with you. How can I help you? How can I support you? I’m here for you. That’s all you have to do.

Once you do that, oh man, that person is going to love you. You’re going to win that person over instead of the opposite of, oh, what’s wrong with you? And you make it in an aggressive manner or making it seem like that you’re mad at them. Now you’re piling it on. So then becomes that. Then you create a hostile environment where you could have just used the right approach, the right words, and turned that situation into a win.

Speaker 2:

So is this all a one-way street? The respect, the authenticity? How do we also encourage our employees to show up? Because I’m a firm believer that everybody is a leader in an organization, whether they have a leadership title or not, we can all lead in some aspect of that. So how do we coach and train so that someone embraces this idea of the communication, the respect, the authenticity, et cetera.

Speaker 3:

Number one is by you carrying yourself the right way. So you have to set the tone as the leader. Doesn’t mean that it’s a one-way street, but if you set the tone as the leader that this is the culture of we’re going to love on you. And if you make a mistake, guess what? Well, we’ll have that conversation. We’re also going to love on you no matter what. Now, if it comes to that point where we have to exit you, we’re going to do it in a graceful manner as well. So if you carry yourself the right way, that’s infectious and that will in turn show everyone. Again, but you have to set the tone as the leader, as the owner, that this is our culture and be intentful about it. So if you have an agency, whether you have one employee or you have hundreds of employees, make sure you decide what the culture you want in your organization, because you have a culture whether you set it or not. So I think it’s best if you set it.

Speaker 2:

Do it on purpose or do it by accident.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. When someone is coaching, so a lot of agency owners, they started their agency with no employees, they’re growing. And so odds are they’re looking amongst their employees and they’re grooming young leaders. What are some ways, if you are the big boss, what are some ways that you can coach and mentor people to be good leaders?

Speaker 3:

One is if you have a true people development program, so you can offer benefits, whether it is, again, whether you’re a small agency or you have hundreds of people, there are ways where you can offer those benefits, get a consultant that can provide some benefits and they can provide some programs for your people. Those are so important nowadays because that’s what people are looking for. They want to feel value and they want to feel that you’re investing in them and those are the best dollars that you can spend. Now, going back to your question at the beginning about people are looking, they’re jumping around because they want to get paid the highest. It’s not always that case. If you invest in your people, not only monetary wise and their salary, but in development programs for them, these are things that are invaluable because they’re going to take that with them for the rest of their lives, whether they’re in your agency or they can go somewhere else. Those are invaluable dollars. So if you can do that, guess what? You stand out from the crowd.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. What’s that old expression about? I don’t want to invest in professional development because somebody might leave and the answer is, yeah, but if you don’t invest in professional development, they might stay. That you-

Speaker 3:

Love it.

Speaker 2:

… you want to invest in your people because, whether they’re with you for a day or a decade or for the rest of their career, they can add more value. And yes, they get to take that with them, but if you create an environment where they want to be, then hopefully they’ll stick around for a long time and you’ll get the return on that investment.

Speaker 3:

And not only that, but you can add to that as well, that even if they leave, guess what? They’re going to speak highly of you because they will never forget what you did for them. So isn’t that the best type of marketing?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Especially when you’re struggling to find employees. Absolutely. Of the elements, if somebody’s looking at themselves in the mirror and they’re saying, okay, I can be a better leader. I can probably be improve in all of these areas, which is probably true of all of us. How does somebody start to be a better leader, a more authentic leader, a better communicator? Where would you have someone start in that process?

Speaker 3:

I think if you start reading articles about leadership and really looking at some of our thought leaders that we have and in the world, you can start there reading their articles and really looking at what resonates with you, because there’s a lot of us that focus on different things, and if you really look at that, if you start reading up and you’re going to resonate with something that’s really, that’s going to be something that’s personal to you, and that’s probably where you want to start. Then there’s hundreds of leadership development courses and programs and stuff like that. But I think really start reading up on the different types of leaderships, that’s a good way to start.

Speaker 2:

And then how do I actually start to behave in a line? How do I actually change my behavior? How do I change the way I think about being a leader? How do I start to show up differently?

Speaker 3:

Find a mentor. Mentors are big, so in anything in life, but more so as far as leaders, find a mentor, find someone that you really resonate with, and again, that starts with reading up on people, but you can find a lot of mentors and they can really guide you and help you and give you sometimes hard conversations. You want to have those tough conversations because sometimes we don’t want to look at ourselves in the mirror and we be like, Ooh, did I do that? Well, you did. You want that, want those people in your life that are going to have those tough conversations with you. So mentor mentoring is so important.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that’s a great point. We can learn a lot from somebody who has already walked the walk.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Yep, yep. All right, so this has been a great conversation. We’ve danced around all kinds of issues. What’s the parting message? If somebody is a little overwhelmed by being a leader, maybe they’re a young leader, they’re just learning how to do it, they want to be a great leader, or somebody’s been doing it for a long time and they’re realizing that they could probably level up their game. What’s the message we want to leave them with? What is the message we want to say to them in terms of that it can get better? That they can get good at this? This is a skill, you’re not born a great leader.

Speaker 3:

Nope.

Speaker 2:

This is a skillset. And so how do you encourage someone who maybe has a long way to go on their leadership journey?

Speaker 3:

Well, the first, one of the things, and that I really talk about, especially when I give presentations about Craig, is really look at yourself. Who are you? Really take some time and do some self-reflection. Who are you? Who do you want to be? So take the time to really listen to and answer those two questions. Then once you answer those two questions, the third one is going to be is, what is your purpose? Do you know your why? Why are you here? We’re all here for a purpose. We are. And we all have God-given talents. So if we can answer that why, does that match our God-given talents? If it doesn’t, then that’s a good place to start.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, great advice. This has been a great conversation. Thank you for your time, and thank you for sharing your expertise. If people want to get a copy of the book or learn more about your work, what’s the easiest way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Speaker 3:

Just go to my website. It’s DrAminSanaia. That’s the easiest way. A bunch of articles and links to everything that you can think of. Plus the button there, it says, contact us.

Speaker 2:

Okay, awesome. Thank you very much. Thanks for being with us.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for having me. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2:

You bet.

Speaker 3:

All right, guys, super important topic. At the end of the day, we are as good as our team, and we are responsible for building and growing and nurturing that team, and how we show up to do that work is super important and it’s very pragmatic. It’s super important to our bottom line. It’s super important to our profitability. It’s important to the image and the reputation of our agency as well as how we serve our clients. And in a grander scheme, honestly, the work environment you create, the relationship you create with employees, that’s part of your lifelong legacy. So this is worth investing in, this is worth learning more about, and it’s worth trying to level up no matter how good you are, every one of us can be a better leader. Have no doubt about that. So take to heart what we talked about today, put it into practice, and let’s see how it impacts your team, your profitability, your clients, and maybe most importantly, how you feel about the work. Okay.

All right. So before I let you go, huge shout out to our friends at White Label IQ. As you know, they’re the presenting sponsor of the podcast, so whitelabeliq.com/ami. You can learn more about their White Label, PPC Dev, and design services. And as always, I am grateful for you. Thank you for listening. Thanks for coming back. Thanks for sending me emails when you love an episode. I love hearing from you. I love knowing that you’re out there listening and that this content is helpful for you. So just want you to know I appreciate it, and I’ll be back next week. Hope you are too. See you then.

Speaker 4:

Thanks for spending some time with us. Visit our website to learn about our workshops, owner peer groups, and download our salary and benefit survey. Be sure you also sign up for our free podcast giveaways at agencymanagementinstitute.com/podcastgiveaway.