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Verbatim text
Lee:
Welcome to the Agency Trailblazer podcast. This is an Agency Life episode coming to you every Wednesday and Friday, where we interview an agency owner from around the world asking them the same questions because we’re all different, but we’re all the same. So let’s listen and learn from each other. Before we kick off the show, here is a word from our sponsor. Do you need to collect content from your clients before you start their website? It’s a lot of fun, right?
Amy Woods:
Constantly chasing them up for months, and then it finally comes back in a storm of 75 emails with huge attachments that you have to try to organise. Content Snare is on a mission to fix this. It helps you get content back in one central place and chases your clients for you. Give it a try at contentsnare.com.
Lee:
Use the code trailblazer when you sign up for 20% off. Hi, and welcome to another episode of Hashtag Agency And today on the show, we have the one, the only, Amy Woods. How are you?
Amy Woods:
Hi, I’m okay. How are you?
Lee:
I’m doing awesome. Now in the comments on YouTube, Amy was very worried that she might look like an idiot with these wonderful headphones that she has. I think she looks like a DJ, but just let us know up in the comments there what you think of her amazing headphones. Please be nice, and let’s build her up and edify and all of the other good stuff. So Amy, you know the format. We’ve had a little chat. You ready to rock and roll?
Amy Woods:
I’m ready to rock and roll, yeah.
Lee:
Let’s do it then. Okay, then. So first of all, could you let us know the name of your agency and what it is you guys do?
Amy Woods:
Yeah, sure. So our agency is called Content10X, and basically we’re a very niche creative agency, and specifically, we repurpose content. So we work with content creators, usually small businesses, entrepreneurs, influencers, and we repurpose their podcast or video or blog posts into lots of different media, lots of different formats. So basically a creative agency, but we do only one thing, which is that we repurpose content. That’s our speciality.
Lee:
That’s awesome. And if we were going to have a birthday party for you guys, get the cake out and all that good stuff, presumably a bit of wine, when would your birthday party be and how old is the agency?
Amy Woods:
I struggled a bit with this one because it’s like what do you define as when you actually started? So I’m going to say it was when I got my first client. So that would be now, for this year, it would have been my first birthday. So how old is that then? Eighteen months old or something like that.
Lee:
You’re one and a half or something like that.
Amy Woods:
Yeah, one and a half. Which is awesome.
Lee:
Now, with regards to your niche, you guys are very focused on something, but I guess it’s really to understand, you’ve shared that you have a productised niche, as in you repurpose people’s content, which you can probably explain what that means in a second as well. But then within the industries, is it that predominantly Are you currently personal brands or do you work with any other business as well? So a company down the road who are maybe blogging, are you working with those guys as well who are into selling widgets? I don’t know. So could you just unpack your niche and what that repurposing actually means in a bit more detail?
Amy Woods:
Yeah. So it isn’t a specific industry that we work with or a specific type of business, although it does tend to be smaller businesses. And so, for example, it ranges from a dental dental influencers to personal brand influencer, too. We work with a lady who teaches teachers how to teach children to read. We start to work with a Lashpreneur, which is somebody who helps people build lâsh businesses. Have you heard of that?
Lee:
What is it? Eyelashes?
Amy Woods:
Yeah, yeah. Eyelash is a big business, and she teaches people who are setting up how to run their businesses. So could you get more different dental industry, Lash industry, reading, teaching teachers to teach children to read. So I guess- These are all people who teach and who are influencers.
Lee:
Actually, it’s very easy to tell. So for example, someone might be teaching a state agents how to sell more houses, and they’ll have a following. So that would be an ideal person for you.
Amy Woods:
Yeah, exactly. We are working with a recruitment agency, so that’s a little bit different. And I’m starting to work with with more other agencies as well and helping them with their content. But yeah, it’s generally influences. So it’s people who are already sold on how important content marketing is. So ideally, they already have a podcast or a regular blog, they regularly create video content. They’re already content creators and creating content to build their audience. And then their problem is that they would like to be in more places. They like to reach more people, but they don’t have the time to be going in all of these different places, trying to be on Instagram, trying to blog as well as video and podcasts and all that stuff. So they want to be everywhere, but they don’t have the skills or the time, the resource, et cetera, to do that. And that’s the problem that we solve. And we’re very much like an outsourced marketing department, basically.
Lee:
I remember you guys as well. You’ll even listen to people’s podcasts and make notes for them, et cetera, as well. Me and you were talking about this a few a few months back, which is phenomenal. So it’s a great service. Well, let’s talk about marketing then. How do you guys generate these leads? How do you find these types of influences?
Amy Woods:
So it’s, I guess, a few different ways. I’m very fortunate that a lot of it has been through network, actually. So as you and I know, being in the same business mastermind, the people that we’ve met through the Mastermind, people who have met at events. So I thought it was going to say for this big online world, but actually, when I think about it, a lot of it is through the face-to-face connexions that I’ve been making. So when I first had the idea, just the idea, no website, I haven’t done anything, just the idea, I went to a business mastermind, presented it to that room, there were only six people there. And a few of them went on I stayed in touch with them, went on to become clients. That was just face-to-face meetings. So yeah, a lot of it is through network, through face-to-face. And then gradually, as clients have come on board, them referring us to other people and talking about us. But But then the other side is that I do a lot of content marketing myself. So I have a podcast. We blog every week. We try and do what we can on the various social media networks.
Amy Woods:
Basically, we treat our content as a client in itself, and we do a full repurpose cycle every week of the podcast. So some people have found me through that. So you think them to be cold leads really coming in from the podcast, but they’ve got in touch and got in touch and become clients. And then And really, it’s an area that I need to improve on. But to be completely honest, I need to start having more marketing, more funnels, probably doing a bit more on social media. But at the moment, it’s been, I’m not going to say easy, but it’s been a lot of word of mouth and face to face, and I need to work on.
Lee:
I’ve always found that going into these events, like so me and you went to Upreneur, and we’ve been to the same sorts of events, haven’t we? And that tends to be a very good place to pick up those leads and to build those relationships. And sometimes that can take over a year. So when I met a year ago at the Upreneur summit has now only just become a client. But because you’ve seen each other, like physically, I think you’re right. There’s something in that, isn’t there? About meeting someone physically. Oh, you’re real. You’re a human. You’re not a picture and a video. You’re actually this real human. I’ve at least met once for 10 minutes at something that we had a shared common interest in. And then you can develop that relationship online over a year, et cetera, be it just commenting on stuff and all that thing. And then eventually Actually, they’ve become a client. I’m pretty sure that’s how you found quite a few clients, and that’s how we found a load. It’s weird. So going to events for us has become non-optional. We just go to events because we always meet new clients and also meet new suppliers as well, which You end up spending money as well as making money.
Lee:
But hey, sometimes people like yourself have just got crazy cool services and you have to take part. All right, so let’s just… We’ll close all the windows, shut all the doors. Just you and me and a few thousand listeners around the world, so don’t worry about Your secret will be safe. But can you let us know what you feel the biggest problem that your agency has? What might be holding you back? What might be frustrating you the most?
Amy Woods:
The biggest challenge that I have, and I’ve always had, is recruitment, and it’s finding the right people. So delivering a service-based business where I have a repeatable service to deliver to my clients every single week, that has to be of the highest quality. At the moment, I cannot build a business like that on freelancers. It has to be staff. I have to have people who are bought into the culture, who are investing them, they invest in me, and we therefore never let clients down and everything isn’t the highest quality. And that’s really hard. And I’ve had so many ups and downs. I did start with freelances, and then I realised I would hire staff, and then it’s just gone up, down, and you know, Neely, I have had to fire loads of people, basically just getting the right people. And I absolutely love my team at the moment. I think they’re just brilliant. I couldn’t be more happier. But every time I want to expand, the challenge is finding the right people. And we’re a mix Well, we’re virtual, so I don’t have an office. Everybody works from their own home location. So it’s finding people with the right skillsets, the right attitude that are going to fit into the culture and the way we work, and they are comfortable and capable and able to work remote work as well.
Amy Woods:
So it’s finding people has been the biggest challenge.
Lee:
It’s certainly a challenge that you’ve been able to overcome. You’ve got a great team. I love seeing the pictures of you all together the other day. Everyone flew in, didn’t they? And you had to get together, which is freaking awesome. And hopefully you’ll have learned what science to look for as you look to grow your team as well. But you’re doing really, really well. And it’s been a privilege, really, just to know you this last year and find out what’s going on in your business. Well, let’s go on to some well-being. This is where we get all kooky and cool. First thing I want to know is how the hell do you switch off? Because you, like me, are going at 100 miles an hour. There’s always something going on. So how do you find that time and what do you do to just switch your brain off from the stress and all the other stuff that comes with business?
Amy Woods:
I’d say the answer to that is with great difficulty, actually.
Lee:
Good answer because I’m listening.
Amy Woods:
With great difficulty. So I do go to the… I really like exercising. And recently, I’ve really I try to get back into that. So I go to the gym a couple of mornings a week. I do strength training, which I love. And so that’s one side of it, is I do try and exercise. And then I’ve got two young kids. So when I can really focus on spending time with them after that. And then that actually creates stress in a different way. I’d love to say that I meditate and things like that, but honestly, I I did try Headspace once, and I just got a bit bored. Maybe we should try it again. That’s why I bought these the other day. It’s a bit boring. I’m trying to do Headspace with these. But yeah, I think it’s just… Another thing actually that I’ve tried recently is being away from my phone and trying to disconnect from social media. So when I’m not working, I’m often sat on the set here at night, not working, but looking on my phone, and I’m looking at Facebook or Instagram or something like that, and then it still becomes It’s quite working because people follow, might be people in the same line of work and things like that.
Amy Woods:
And then you’re never switching off or you’re constantly… Like your brain is constantly going. So I’ve been trying to disconnect from social a little bit more. And really it’s exercise for me and healthy eating. And cooking is a real hobby of mine. So I love to cook healthy food. And so that keeps us healthy as well.
Lee:
That’s awesome. You’re so right on the social media because as well with the state of the world right now, there’s quite a lot of negativity policy and politics and everything like that. It can just be a whole load of new stress, as well as the fact that there are potential clients on there or people in your network and you never switch off. So I’ve, like you, have recently been trying to not look at the phone at night. I don’t know if people have noticed, but I don’t post as much on social media. And that is on purpose because it’s actually one of the causes of my stress and not switching off. All right, well, we’re coming into land. This is the final question. It’s really strict here. You are only allowed to pick one tool, and you’re not allowed to say Microsoft Office because that’s lots of tools all rolled into one. So the question is here, can you name one tool that has been essential to your agency’s success and why?
Amy Woods:
Yeah, so 100% Trello. Okay. So We use Trello for absolutely everything. So every single piece of work that we do, we have templates and we track all the workflows. We can look back at everything that we’ve done. And being the remote team that we are, just using everything We don’t have much email at all. We’ve got down an email. We just use Trello. We do, and you said once, we do use Slack as well for some team communications, but we keep most of the work stuff on Trello. So If anyone listens to this isn’t familiar with Trello, it’s like Asana. And what else is it like, Liam? It’s a project management workflow tool, isn’t it?
Lee:
A bit like pipe drive as well with the different sections in it as well. Do you guys use the Pro account, like a pay for account, or are you just using it for free.
Amy Woods:
Do you know, actually, we do just use the free in it. I guess the way that we’ve used it, we’ve kept it quite simple. That’s been okay for now. So we haven’t done any upgrades such, and it’s still working fine.
Lee:
Cool. Well, thanks for that. Folks, you can check out that over on Trello.com. It is pretty incredible. I found it very useful for mapping stuff out in my brain. So without using it for the process, we actually have Asana in our business, but I find Trello really easy to just map stuff out and work what’s in my mind and give myself a personal list of stuff to do separate from any other system. So I definitely recommend people check that one out. Well, thank you very much for your time. You are a legend. People can find you on content10x.com, I believe. And don’t forget as well, subscribe to Amy’s podcast. I take her podcast with me to the gym every single week, and she shares brilliant advice, which I run out of time to action. Therefore, I should probably use her services as well so that she can help repurpose our content. But we create so much. I don’t even know where to start. But anyway, that’s Content10x.com as well. Go listen to the podcast. Subscribe as well to her newsletter because she puts out really cool information as well with great tips.
Lee:
Amy, thank you so much for your time. You’re a legend and have a great day.
Amy Woods:
Thank you so much for having me on.
Lee:
Cheerio.
