Agencies That Build

Guillaume Buat-Ménard, Director of Digital Transformation at Flipside Group is a formidable force in the field of technology. He is a digital strategy and business development expert with over 27 years of experience. With a sharp mind and endless curiosity, he is leading the digital revolution and shaping the future of technology.
Discussion Points - 
Q1- What sort of myth or bogus strategy or misconception you'd like to set the record straight on? 1:46Q2- Are there tips along the way that you've learned, on specifically generating leads for PPC? 4:57Q3-  When do you start the PPC campaign, how long do you continue that specific niche that you're trying to promote? 14:31Q4- Are there any tools, any tactics that you use to understand the pain points? 19:02Q5- How is your organization structured? 22:17Q6- How do you deal with a cost adjustment when you’re the research piece of it? 30:53Q7- Give some tidbits on how you keep the sales and account management team incentivized and motivated. 39:26Q8- What's exciting you about the future? 43:29
 
Show notes - 
You don't have to do one campaign about your agency, you can have, like we do, several campaigns running on several different things and services. 12:56
As agencies, we don't use our power enough, and more often than not digital agencies.14:45
We always talk about UX, right? What is that? Well, it's looking at a problem from the user's perspective, but not looking at what we can sell them. 14:54
So, rather than look at the technology, everybody's going to bid on that saying we can help you with these specific things. 17:54
These leads, they're not cheap, they will cost you, some of them will cost you 10s of pounds, sometimes or hundreds of pounds to come to your page. So you've got to work that will make that work very hard. 18:26
Technology changes and so on, but ultimately it’s still about people solving problems and so on. 20:25
Clients don't necessarily get to speak to someone, you know, knowledgeable about a very specific subject early on. And that's a problem for creating trust. 23:55
But we just dish out advice, and counsel straight away. It can be a startup, could be an agency. We don't mind, we don't keep our knowledge in a box and try to give a big presentation, that doesn't help people. Right, what they want is actually an answer. Can you help me? Yes, we can help you. 26:42
People are looking for a problem to be solved, right? If you solve it, or you partially solve it straightaway, already gives them a sense of they've got the agency, they're here to help. 29:19
So you've got two types of clients. Of course, those who know they need a discovery, actually. So that's the easy part. And those who don't know. 31:20
In the marketing space, particularly big brands are not always the ones that get paid the most, b2b tends to be actually much, much more lucrative. 34:54
So it's more about how we can help everybody do well, and get the company to do well because when the company does well, we'll do well. 43:12
Myth Busted - Agencies follow what they advice their clients
 
Links - 
LinkedIn: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/buatmenard/ 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbuatmenard/ 
Company website: https://flipsidegroup.com/ 

Sheila Burkett, an accomplished entrepreneur and technology expert, serves as the Founder and CEO of Spry Digital. With an impressive track record of over 35 years in the tech industry, she has emerged as a revered leader in the digital realm, empowering organizations to leverage technology for exponential growth. Sheila's guidance has propelled Spry Digital to become a trusted partner for clients spanning various sectors.
 
Discussion Points - 
Q1. What are your thoughts on Chat GPT? 2:35Q2. What sort of myth or bogus strategy or misconception do you want to clear up? 7:16Q3. How do you make the partnership work? How do you manage the friction? 8:14Q4. What is your profit sharing model that you use internally with employees, can you talk us through a little bit? 13:43Q5. What inspired you to have the profit-sharing model? 17:24Q6. What does your agency specialize in? What is your superpower? 26:10Q7. How do you manage when clients don't deliver? 29:07Q8. Tell us a bit about your race car history. 32:37Q9. What motivated your decision to shift from racing to agency? 36:26 Q10. Where do you get your learning about the industry and the agency space? 38:17Q11. What's exciting you about the future? 40:43
Show notes - 
As knowledge workers were going to have to solve the tougher problems. So what chat GPT will do is it will take the easier task away. So we're solving deeper, harder problems. 6:08
We all run into the more diverse personalities and learning styles that you have, which is great. 12:40
I wanted a mechanism where employees could not only be owners in the company and share in the profits of the company but have the ability to earn enough in that space to potentially buy me out and take over owning the company. 14:14
We've been working for a couple of years to move to a very transparent base pay model. So every position will have a salary that everyone will know. So if you're a full-stack developer, this is your salary. And it's one number. It's not a range. So,I believe salary ranges continue to create inequitable positions. 19:56
We always have taken a holistic view of that user experience, like since day one, we've always said, what is it that you're trying to achieve? And how do we help those people achieve it. 26:58
We're not saying we're going to gain new leads, we're going to get quality leads that convert.
If you're not aligned with their (clients) business goals, and you don't understand their drivers, sometimes teams can get off track with what the clients are achieving. 30:55
I learned everything I could about building race cars. And we (Husband & her) both being technology geeks, decided to buy a Dyno, which is what measures horsepower in cars. And we started really working in that engine management system computer programming to change the way the system works. 34:55
I became a part of Together Digital in 2017. And that is a community of women who let several agency owners mentor women, and now I mentor to women out of that group who are working to be agency owner. 39:10
Chat GPT, I think that's pretty exciting to see what that will evolve into. And really, how do we leverage it for good? And control it from as the fear-mongering continues to happen of it's going to take the world over. 40:50
Myth Busted -  Starting a company with partners who are married to each other is a bad move. 
Links - 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheilaburkett/ 
Company website: https://sprydigital.com/ 
 
Show Credits - 
Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie Coan
Produced by Bobby Soni 
Edited by Priyanka Sharma 
Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra, and Juhie Bhardwaj

In today’s episode, we have the privilege of hosting the brilliant minds behind Elva Design, J.P. McCarvel, the Co-founder and Partner, along with Michael Francis, the Co-Founder and Creative Director of this remarkable full-service design group. 
Elva Design is on a mission to craft stunning and impactful branded e-commerce experiences, where they seamlessly blend design, technology, and strategy. Get ready to explore their insights on creating exceptional customer journeys and discover the magic that sets Elva Design apart in the world of design.
Discussion Points - 
Q1. What misconception bogus strategy do you want to clear up? 2:34Q2. Why did you decide to do a remote? 5:27Q3. Tell us a little bit about your origin story. 6:35Q4. What tools are you using? 8:56Q5. How do you overcome situations when there is friction? 18:41Q6. What are your client acquisition strategies? How do you approach it? 21:13Q7. How do you manage your team and support them in facing difficult challenges? 26:18|Q8. What are the steps you have taken to ensure the team stays smart and up-to-date? 29:40Q9. How did you come up with the name ‘Elva’? 34:37Q10. What's exciting you about the future? 36:05
Show notes - 
When we work with partners, we like to act as an extension to their team and constantly communicate and be in conversation with them. - Michael Francis 8:40
Every client is different as far as what they want, as far as what they want out of a partner and what their expectations are, what their culture is, I think my experience at Yeti was, and coming from GoPro and Crocs before that was, agencies come in and tell you the things that they do and how they do them, and why you'll benefit from them. - JP McCarvel 10:05
If you get too big to tailor to or if you just start to do a one size fits all for brands, especially for brands like it's a losing strategy, it will lead to failure. - JP McCarvel 11:31
We’re really coming in humble and just listening to what we've been through as a brand and where we're going. And we try to advocate that to the team today to say- hey, you can, you should go into brands and tell them that you don't know and that you rely on them for that knowledge. - JP McCarvel 13:40
We disagree probably multiple times a day. And you know, it's really around, 1. We both trust each other. We've gotten this far and, 2. Talking about it being open and transparent with what we have issues with. - Michael Francis 19:15
E-commerce doesn't work like that it's messy, and it's very difficult so is running an agency, so just embrace it, and work through some days, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you keep working together to do better the next day. 20:38
Ideal for us, or there are those brands that want to have the best-in-class brand experience for their customer. Now they're focused on what's the digital experience for my customer, and then going out and finding a team that can help support them in that journey - JP McCarvel 21:36
Communication is key, having conversations with them (team), providing support where they need it, whether it's the extra support, buying more time with the client, limiting the number of pages that are due, you know, working with the creative team, first of the design team first, to alleviate any type of stress - Michael Francis 26:36
Finding creative talent for e-commerce design is somewhat of a needle in the haystack to have an understanding of UX and UI, and some lean more on one than the other. And so being open to that type of talent when it presents itself or when it comes in and creating a space for that type of talent on the team. - Michael Francis 30:12
What's exciting is that I don't think the challenges are going away, I think they're getting even more tough to grasp. And for someone like Michael and myself, the thought of things changing and getting more difficult is exciting. 37:04
Myth-busted - The creative agency people have to be in the same room to create the best work. 
Links - 
JP McCarvel’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpaulmccarvel/ Michael Francis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjfrancis/ Company website: https://www.helloelva.com/ 
Show Credits - Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie CoanProduced by Bobby Soni Edited by Priyanka Sharma Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra, and Juhie Bhardwaj

Alicia Williams, a marketing genius with a passion-infused go-getter personality is the co-founder and creative director at Aliste Marketing. She has collaborated with some of the biggest industry disruptors and executive powerhouses and emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the industry. Since 2008, she has been successfully building a collective of brilliant creatives, strategists, and specialists that produce a truly end-to-end marketing solution for established brands. 
Discussion points - 
Q1 - What sort of bogus misconception strategy you want to set the record straight on? 3:20Q2 - You guys have a pretty targeted niche, so how did you find that? 5:15Q3 -  How do you identify which channels are the right fit? Are there some practical tools and tips that may give us the answer more objectively? 8:24Q4- What are your thoughts on the reemergence of in-person events? 11:14Q5 - Give us a couple of pointers on the practices that have been most effective for you in utilizing LinkedIn. What has it worked for you, and what do you love the most? 15:21Q6 - How do you measure success on LinkedIn? Is there anything that you track that helps you decide? 18:30Q7 -  What is your origin story? Can you tell us how you got started? 20:00Q8 -  How do you pick your people? How do you vet that they're good? 25:25Q9 - What are the tools that you are using? 33:22Q10 - How do you see your agency going forward? 35:55Q11 - How do you define your audience? And what is the good initiative for you when it comes to growth? 37:54Q12 - What's exciting you about the future? 39:30Q13 - What are your feelings about AI, and how you are approaching it? 41:02
 
Show notes - 
It definitely wasn't a straight line, it was exact bumps and swirly rallies, in order to figure out who our audience was, and also what we really liked doing and what we were good at, and being in a position within our business to say, we're not good at this, or this doesn't bring us joy. 5:37
LinkedIn is a massive treasure chest for me specifically, to get in front of the right people. Like, tell me what platform honestly, you could reach out to the CEO of Pepsi and get a response. 9:20
From a client perspective, it goes back down to who are their buyers, and what’s their buyer persona. What's the age, the industry, the geographic location? Like what do they care about? And that honestly helped guide or does guide where they should be hanging out from a platform standpoint. 10:15
I think in-person events absolutely have a place. And they're great, especially for learning and development, and getting in the room and showing a presence. I'm just very intentional about which ones I go to, I think of it this way, what events are worth me not being home for my family to go to? 12:39
We do have a LinkedIn group that's filled with marketing executives, I measure the growth of that group and the engagement. The other is my connection growth, making sure that my connection numbers are increasing with the right people. And the third is we have a LinkedIn navigator it will show profiles, and engagement is tracked based on others in your space. 18:24
We built the team to really have a collective of different specialists, they are hyper-focused on what they do, and they do it really, really well. Where my strong suit comes in is that strategy and that implementation part and kind of making sure the wheel spins. 22:53
So when I say I've spent years building this collective, it has taken years to test it, try it, and have them treat me like a customer, before I introduce them to a client. 27:09
Our clients know, our strong suit is the strategy and implementing the creative part. The other avenues like SEO and ads, are specific contractors that we pull in for that client. 29:47
Clients want to know, their goals are being hit, the work is being done, we have their back, and who's sitting in those seats. It's irrelevant because they trust that we're building the team that's gonna get them there. 33:04
Clients and brands that are going through a transition that have a marketing executive in house already, that's who's a really good fit for us from a brand perspective. 38:46
You don't need to have a huge website, you could have a basic website, get you started, and it achieves the goals, you could use the AI tools to help you in terms of getting content going and wordsmithing and whatnot. 40:32
Myth Busted - Being on every social media platform instead of just focusing on where your audience is and doing that platform really well. 
Links - 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliste/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alistemarketing/
Company website: https://alistemarketing.com/
 
Show Credits - 
Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie Coan
Produced by Bobby Soni 
Edited by Priyanka Sharma 
Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra, and Juhie Bhardwaj

Today we are joined by two special guests who run a very successful agency together - Garrett Winder, Owner & Ariel Kidwell, Director of Strategy at Goodwork. They are a team of expert developers helping design agencies build things for web and mobile. 
Garrett has a proven track record for leading high-quality large-scale web projects for clients like PBS Frito Lay and Tito's handmade vodka and Ariel is a seasoned marketer and consultant who specializes in helping businesses achieve sustainable growth.
Discussion points - 
Q1 - Smash a myth, bogus strategy, or misconception. What do you guys want to set the record straight on? What do you want to clear up? 2:19
Q2-  A lot of agency struggles with managing expectations, how do you manage those boundaries? Are there some tips and tricks that you can share that you guys have found that make it work? 03:36
Q3-  When the clients start getting angry or agitated because of the deadlines not being met, How do you handle such a situation? 7:51
Q4 - How do you make sure that your clients deliver what they owe you so you can stick to that timeline without padding it so much? 13:21
Q5 - How your experience has been in working with the other agencies?  How the relationship has been? What did you enjoy more? What were the pros and cons, of working with each of them, like, what are the wins? And what are the losses for you? 15:34
Q6 - Do you have you know, a process in which you make sure that your team is have been utilized for a certain amount of time when the institution happens? 20:21
Q7 - How do you work with the team, outside of email and phone calls and stuff like that? Are there tools that you guys have found that you've used? 22:56
Q8 - How do you tackle your quality checks? 30:08
Q9 - How did you start this business? How did you get into this? What's your what's your origin story? 32:52
Q10 - What's exciting you about the future? 34:52
Show notes - 
We really focused on process, because we figured process has to at least be the foundation for that, right? Like, you have to be able to have expectations not only within your company but also setting them with clients so that everyone can at least start aligned. - Ariel Kidwell 05:17
If you really sit down and have a thorough gut check with your team on what's realistic, and also with the client. What's realistic for them? When can they deliver the materials that you need? When can they do realistic QA turns and content entry, you can kind of set these milestones and timelines that are achievable- Ariel Kidwell 06:11
Wishful thinking is one of the worst things you can do in our industry because it rarely happens the best way, you always have to be proactively working towards the worst-case scenario. - Ariel Kidwell 09:18
We do have a pause clause, so there's a certain amount of time, but if they don't get back to us, we just say, we're going to take it off of our schedule, we'll move on with the other things we're working on. - Garrett Winder 14:00
They (agencies) could say, Hey, we're doing this in July, and July comes around, and they say, actually, we're doing it in November. And all of a sudden, we have a hole in our schedule. So that would be one of the one of the dark side of working with the agencies. - Garret Winder 17:32
We found that the more we work with these agencies, the more we learned from each other, the more they really appreciate the more we give them to help make the project better. - Ariel Kidwell 18:55
We actually moved from Trello to GitHub for so that these projects are tied to the code changes, which helps us a lot because our clients are long-term. You know, something can happen in two years where we kind of want to look back and see oh, that was this project and we touched to this thing. - Garrett Winder 24:58
A tool that I use that I've told so many of our agency friends about and they love is called To Do. It's an app, you can have it on your phone, you can use it in the browser, it's so simple, but it can help so much keep track of all the little emails and status updates. - Ariel Kidwell 26:35
As clients get more advanced and mature with websites in general, we keep seeing that relationship between us and them change.- Garrett Winder 37:01
Myth Busted - Agencies have to be chaotic, stressful, and reactive in order to keep their clients happy.
Links - 
Garret’s LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettwinder/ 
Ariel’s LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielkidwell/ 
Company website: https://www.simplygoodwork.com/ 
 
Show Credits - 
Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie Coan
Produced by Bobby Soni 
Edited by Priyanka Sharma 
Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra, and Juhie Bhardwaj

In this episode of Agency That Build, we are joined by CEO, Founder at Backroom, Kara Redman. She is a marketing wonder and skilled question-asker and a problem-solver. She founded her own business in 2014, a brand strategy and activation agency after working in marketing for more than 15 years. She empowers a four-day workweek by dismantling the 9 to 5 workday routine. A humanist in a true sense. 
Discussion points - 
What is some sort of myth, bogus strategy? Something you misconception something you want to set the record straight on? 2:16
Was there somebody in your past who was like a mentor and influenced your journey? 4:48
What is the whole idea of impostor syndrome and the learnings from the mentors, how    do you implement these learnings in the in the way you are? 7:00
How do you define humanist? How being a humanist can help you be more successful. 9:52 
How you guys work within that four day work week? How you make that work? 14:02
How do you take on new clients and type of work? Does the 4 day work week change anything for you on the type of work that you do? 18:05
What are the tools and PM system you are using? Can you divulge the tools in your suite? Will you share that secret sauce? 23:59
What are your thoughts on employee retention? How do you keep the your team engaged and inspired? 29:28
What is exciting you about the future? 37:24
Which your favourite tool? 38:33
Shownotes - 
If you're open to always learning and being curious and growing over being right, or being admired, then the world is your mentor. 6:11
You get more out of people, when you meet them where they are on an emotional level, versus trying to force somebody to produce from fears, scare tactics, intimidation hierarchies. 10:50
We just set appropriate expectations, manage those expectations, follow through and show up and do the work. You don't have to cram everything in. 16:38
As a society, we learn when we speak about the things that we're trying and doing and what works and what doesn't. 21:05
Our rule is all documents are stored in Drive, you can link to them in Asana, we do all of our collaborative work in either mural or figma. 25:30
Employee retention should never be a goal, because to me, it implies a mentality of ownership. 30:00
We're really excited to see how AI continues to influence the work that we're doing. Like, for example, we're using AI for, like creative concepting right now, rather than doing like bespoke creative campaigns, and then, you know, creating based on what the clients sign off on. So, you know, we're really excited just to have more tools. 38:12
Links - 
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kararedman/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/backroom Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backroom.io/ Company website:  https://www.backroom.io/ Medium: https://medium.com/@kararedman 
Myth Busted - The idea of a self-made man, there is always somebody who gives the first opportunity. Show Credits - 
Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie CoanProduced by Bobby Soni Edited by Priyanka Sharma Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra, and Juhie Bhardwaj
 

Meg Scarborough is the founder & CEO of Megawatt. She has more than 15 years of expertise in the B2B sector. She's a natural communicator with expertise in content marketing and brand messaging. Her team helps clients reach new audiences and convert new customers through the art and science of content. 
Discussion points - 
What is some sort of myth kind of bogus strategy misconception that you would like to set the record straight on? What do you get to learn? 2:14
What are those questions that you ask that can actually help the writer understand and write the technical problems in a way that the non-technical person can understand at the same time? 6:49
What's the one-liner that you guys do at Megawatt is content and branding? 9:18
You do have a range of senior and junior, from a training perspective and a growth perspective, as an agency owner, how do you foster that? 11:19
What are your thoughts on AI? Where do you see it going from the content generations perspective, and the overall future of this industry as a whole? 14:29
How much content do we need in today's world? How do you foresee what type of content is needed? 19:06
Let's talk a little bit about your origin story. Like how did you get into this? 22:36
Tell us a little bit about your process and saying yes to clients, how do you know somebody is the right fit for you? 25:14
What are some of the key metrics that you show to your clients to show them the value that you are producing for the work for which they're paying you? 27:00
 As an agency owner, what would you say is the biggest mistake you made? 32:33
Let's talk about the future, what are you looking forward to? 34:27
Show notes -
“I don't think you actually have to code to be able to write intelligently about code” - Meg 3:06
They (writers) need to understand how to ask intelligent questions that tie things to the bigger picture. And I think that's really the core skill set, that we focus on teaching all of our writers from Jr., all the way up to senior. 10:56
Curious is something that we always look for in the interview process. I think any good writer or reporter is curious by nature, and growth-oriented as well. 12:28 
“Making sure that Training is always prioritized, even when it's not necessarily something you can build back to the client, But it's really important because it helps us do fantastic work for our clients.” - Meg 13:42
There's still so much experimentation to be done before we really understand what's the most effective way for us to be using AI and machine learning in content, but I'm not really concerned that it's coming for our jobs. 17:04
You shouldn't be thinking producing a piece of content or putting it up on your site is the end. Distribution is, in many ways a bigger part of what you're doing, and then repurposing and finding ways to get that message in front of different audiences, whether it is on social media or other platforms like that. 21:22
We want to think about brand awareness, because if nobody's ever heard of you, and nobody knows you exist, then you're never going to get that downstream effect that you're looking for. 28:38
Busted Myth - 
You don’t need to be a coder to write about software.
 
Links - 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganscarborough/
Company website: https://megawattcontent.com/
Newsletter - https://megawattcontent.com/content-marketing-newsletter/
 
Show Credits - 
Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie CoanProduced by Bobby Soni Edited by Priyanka Sharma Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra, and Juhie Bhardwaj

What does it take to be a “Conversion Scientist”? - Andrew Litchford - S2 Episode #1
 
In this episode of Agency That Build, we chat with Andrew Litchford, the Partner/Director of Business Development at Starling. He is an expert in transforming organizations through marketing and strategy. He is considered an all -rounder and is also recognized as a conversion scientist by his team members due to his broad competence in areas like Web development, UX marketing, and business growth.
 
Discussion Points -
 
What sort of bogus strategy misconception, What do you want to clear the air about? 1:50
Why do you think copy is important? And why do people focus more on design and not copy? 3:16
When we talk about conversion, just the mention of you being a conversion scientist, how do you define that? What exactly do you look for when you play that? Or when you put that scientist hat on? What are you digging into? What are you looking for, in that study? 11:11 
What's your standard practice when you're working with clients? 15:34
How did your partner and you get into this business? 19:16
What in your opinion is the biggest mistake you might have made? And what did it cost you? Either personally, or long as a business? 26:04
Tell us a little bit about your contracting experience. 30:11
What is the biggest challenge you are facing right now? 36:24
What's exciting you for the future? 39:24
 
Takeaways
Conversion copy matters, even if just a little more than design, when converting website visitors into leads. People in our industry put a lot of emphasis on visual structure, and not enough emphasis on copy.
Start with copy and work your way from there. Voice customer research, read all the conversions, copy out and do the content architecture and then move from that into the design.
A lot of people got into web design and development because there's a great intersection between being nerdy and solving problems logically with development. And then, there's this creative side to it with the visual identity.
How do you stand out and differentiate your business in a sea of other businesses doing the same things that look just as good?  It comes down to communication, at the end of the day, your users are people, and what you say to them matters. 
The primary point of conversion is getting people to fill up their contact form, to reach out to them for whatever service it might be.
First, define that conversion goal, and then dig into current users to understand how they're getting to the site, and how they're using it.
Technology and humans are constantly changing, and we need to work to keep up with that. 
It's easy for clients to see through a facade, someone hiding behind a public entity or organization that's really just like a single person that doesn't have a broad skill set.
Our biggest challenge right now is educating prospects and even existing clients on the value of strategy and copy. 
We have a really clear definition of what our end goal is in terms of team structure and size and business revenue. Not only so that we can get to that goal, but so that we don't go past that goal. 
I see a lot of agencies that grow too far too fast, and it ends up being to their detriment.
Myth Busted - Design should be prioritized over the copy.
Links - 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlitchford/Company’s Website: https://starlingdigital.com/Company’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/starlingdigital/
 
Show Credits - Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie CoanProduced by Bobby Soni Edited by Priyanka Sharma Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra and Juhie Bhardwaj

Jonathon Hensley is the CEO of EMERGE, a digital product agency, where he works with clients to develop valuable products and services based on business strategies, user needs, and new technologies. EMERGE has committed to a simple philosophy under Jonathon's leadership: the relationship between EMERGE and its clients should exist to create real and lasting value and to motivate people to take action. Inspire and motivate a team to focus on what is important.
Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust? 2:45
How did you get to the point where you are now? Share some of your secret sauce with us. 5:53
Do you have any stories to tell about a project that didn't go as planned? And how you used it to learn from it and move forward. 9:20
How did you come up with a definition for failure? 14:55
How do you define the strategy? 18:20
How did you get started in business, how have you grown, and how have these strategic ideas aided your growth? 24:00
Have you always worked in the area of product development? What drew you to product development in the first place? 27:05
What did you release that was a game-changer for your company? Or What is the biggest mistake you made? 29:55
How do you keep your team motivated, and what keeps your staff from leaving you? 39:16
What initially drew you to product development? 43:15 
What does the future look like for you and your agency? 46:05
 
Takeaways 
I think it's really important that we understand the intentions of this idea of fail fast fail often and what it really means in an organization so it can be used effectively.
Failure is not the objective of any organization, but to learn is critical to every organization. And so we have to get failed fast and fail often as a mechanism for learning and not a methodology that use it in the wrong way, can erode that accountability.
Agile is meant to be about a continuous improvement and learning approach to more effective collaboration and delivery. And so this essence gets missed all the time.
Through the additive, experimentation, testing, and validation, we were able to verify what we knew from the client. 
Once you have a learning culture in place, and you can start to really think about how you implement it, you know the insights that come from each experimentation or each failure. You need to also have a clearer way of how that knowledge is then distributed across the company to collect it, help everyone level up. 
When we look at micro experiments, we're looking at how we can collect that information to that insight much faster and in smaller increments.
What does a great strategy need to encompass at its core, and these things are not very well articulated or defined for most organizations.
Strategy is not that one-time thing, but it's episodic it has to happen is a continuing practice inside the business ongoing, and depending on how fast you're trying to grow, or evolve in the market, will determine how often you have to be working through those steps of strategy.
The essence of what we do hasn't changed, but how we do it.
The passion and the core of the company was still in the roots of where we started, which was in product.
Time being spent on on staying true to our core and staying hyper focused with our core customer, and working in those being in that community, is would have been really powerful for us
Links 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathonhensley/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/jonathonhensley
Company website: https://www.emergeinteractive.com/
Company linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/emerge-interactive/
Busted Myths: Fail fast and fail often.

Todd Kaufman is the President and CEO of Test Double. Todd has worn a number of hats including - Software Developer, Project Manager, Agile Coach, Salesperson, and Entrepreneur. Test Double is a software development consulting agency experienced in: Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, React, Elixir, Erlang, iOS, Android, React Native...and a lot more!Discussion Points:
What myth or bogus strategy do you want to bust?  2:20
How did you guys get into working remotely? 3:15
How was the response and experience 10 Years ago when you started the remote culture in your office? 6:00
What process and key tools did you set up to stay successful in remote culture? 7:00
We would like to hear a little bit about the client engagement from a thought process standpoint. 17:40
What do you do to keep your employees inspired and motivated? 24:10
What does the future look like to your employees who are also part owners? 33:10
How does offshore integration process work for you? 41:00
What is the biggest mistake you made as an agency owner? 43:40
Tell us a little bit about you. How many marathons have you run? 47:50
What does the future look like to you and your agency? 49:50Show Notes
Software developers prefer the flexibility, the autonomy, and really the level of focus that they get working remotely. 3:01
Remote work isn't 100% Great and 0%, like bad. There are trade offs, as with everything. But with us, we want people to work where they best operate, where they're most focused, most energized, et cetera. So we give them the choice of working wherever they like. 5:09
You have to build in the connectedness piece. Otherwise, I think it just tends to feel like a cooperative of independent consultants. 9:48
We've lost out on bigger opportunities that just didn't feel like they wanted a partner coming in, who would be remote. 10:45
In some sense, a lot of companies want you to be inside their office spaces, and then you go in there, and everyone has headphones on, no one's communicating via any other means than slack. And it feels just like, you know, working from home. 10:54
What we do is we do open ended contracts. So our clients, any one of our clients can fire us with a seven day notice, that keeps a healthy pressure on us to continue adding value. 14:08
I think what we've seen work is honestly trying to be respectful and operate in our clients best interests. So that includes the budget. So it's not that we want to ignore their budget, by any means. We want to understand what their budget is, we want to be good stewards of their funds. 15:13
We want to do some planning. We just don't want to be beholden to it when, you know, we're at the most uncertain point of a project. We want to iterate, get feedback and keep adjusting. So I think that that model works well for almost all software projects 16:18
We've partnered with some companies that are really, really good at UIUX. And as a set of specialists, we provide a pretty comprehensive, valuable solution there. 19:22
For software talent, we recognize that if we don't find projects that people want to work on, they're going to find them themselves, whether it's at Tesla or elsewhere. 23:18
We didn't become remote because we wanted to be remote. We were remote, because we wanted people to be autonomous. 25:40
Links:
Company LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/testdouble/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/testdouble
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/testdoubletodd/
Company website: https://testdouble.com/
 
Myth: You have to be in an office space to be productive in the software industry.