How Can You Stop Being 'Constantly Working' and Still Grow Your Agency?
Mike Michalowicz – Bestselling author of Profit First, Clockwork, and Get Different. Mike is known for turning conventional business advice on its head. In this episode, he reveals how agency owners can escape the trap of always being “on” by building systems that run without them—and why constant work is the enemy of real growth.
What You’ll Learn
- Why working more hours actually slows agency growth
- How to break free from hustle culture by designing a business that runs without you
- Why most agency owners are stuck in doing—not leading—and how to change that
- How to systematize delegation, decision-making, and delivery without micromanaging
- Simple frameworks from Clockwork that let founders step away and scale up
Key Takeaways
- Being “constantly working” is not a badge of honor—it’s a bottleneck
- Clockwork systems free you from the day-to-day and drive predictable growth
- Delegation is a system, not a personality trait—you can learn it
- Your agency can scale faster when you step out of the way
- Freedom starts with letting go, not doing more
Why You Need to Get Uncomfortable
Hustling for the sake of hustle is not the way to grow your business. If you've been hustling non-stop for several years and you haven't gotten anywhere, it's time to change your strategy. You've slumped. Too often, agency owners think if they just work hard enough it'll pay off. But this hustle hard mentality isn't going to cause burnout and a sense of defeat.
Mike says you have to get uncomfortable. Put yourself out there and make a change. Hire new employees, delegate more of your responsibilities onto others, try to position employees in ways that disrupt your day-to-day. Even something as simple as trying a new software may be the kick-in-the-butt you need to get out of that constant grind.
There are 5 roles of an agency owner. If you're doing anything outside of them, consider ways you can delegate, automate or eliminate it. Stop doing things you suck at or don't enjoy!
2 Ways to Drop the Hustle and Grind
1. Hire owners.
If you're having trouble getting your agency employees to act like owners and take on the responsibility necessary to help you run your agency, hire people who will. Mike suggested hiring people who had the ambitions of owning an agency one day. Even if it's just a side gig, having people who understand the mentality it takes to run an agency is critical.
2. You do you.
Stop reading those "10 Lifestyle Habits of Highly Successful People" articles and get in touch with who you are. Agency strategies (and especially lifestyle strategies) aren't just one size fits all. They have to meld with you and who you are. If you're not authentic, your agency is going to suffer. So when you hear Gary Vee tell you it's all about the hustle -- maybe it is, but maybe it is. You do you.
Don't lose yourself in your agency. Don't be a prisoner to it. Remember, you started the agency to support your life. Not the other way around.
#1 Most Important Delegation Tip
When it comes to delegating employees, Mike has a critical tip. You want to assign the outcome.
"Delegate the outcome rather than the specific task. You'll be amazed at how your team responds to this method, and how much freer you feel, too. " ~ Mike Michaelowicz
Standard "delegation" usually works like this:
"Jamie, can you go and work on that proposal for me?" This style of delegation, or assigning specific tasks to each employee is worn-out and results in you being stuck answering tons of questions. You end up feeling like it's just easier to do it yourself rather than entertain so many interruptions.
Instead, Mike recommends assigning an outcome instead of delegating a task.
So, instead of saying: "Jamie go work on that stack of proposals." You should say: "Jamie, can you make sure that those proposals really reflect the value we bring to our clients? You got this!"
You want to turn your employees into decision makers. Give them permission to do their best job and make decisions that benefit the agency. So, if Jamie has another question, tell her to go with her gut and choose the option that best reflects the vision and goals of the agency.
Delegate by the outcome rather than the specific task. You'll be amazed at how your team responds to this method, and how much freer you feel, too!
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What Other Challenges Do You Have?
We have covered all you need to know to start backing away from constantly working in your agency but is this the only challenge you are facing?
Whether you need advice on increasing website traffic , what you need to do as an agency owner or learn how to plan who you hire for your agency, I can help.I hope you found this helpful and can adapt your existing agency and build long lasting agency business as well as relationships with clients. Please find all my tips, tricks and insights in my blog that covers a wide variety of topics. Videos more your thing? You can check out the videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.
