DeepSpecialization_Susan Quinn_EP 68_Audio_Edited_V3
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[00:00:00] Susan Quinn: The secret that I have found over my 40 years is just to continue to evolve.
[00:00:05] Corey Quinn: Welcome to the deep specialization podcast, the show where we blend focus, strategy, and client intimacy in order to scale and simplify our businesses and our lives. I'm your host, Corey Quinn. Let's jump into the show. Today I'm joined by the president and CEO of Circle S Studio, Susan Quinn.
[00:00:25] Corey Quinn: Welcome, Susan.
[00:00:27] Susan Quinn: Corey, thank you so much. I love that we both have the same last name. So somewhere along the lines, we probably, our families are connected, but I don't know the answer to that question.
[00:00:39] Corey Quinn: Yeah, no, it's clearly we are connected. Maybe, you know, universally we're all connected in some way, but, uh, another layer of that, which is interesting is.
[00:00:48] Corey Quinn: My mom's name is Susan Quinn. So when I saw you, when I saw your email come in, I was like, Oh, my mom, nope, that's not my mom. Not that Susan Quinn.
[00:00:58] Susan Quinn: No, not your mom. But we only need one Susan Quinn. There's no need for any more.
[00:01:04] Corey Quinn: That's true. That's true. So would you mind, as we kind of get going here, share a little bit about who you are and your background and a little bit about the work you do.
[00:01:13] Susan Quinn: Yes. Well, as you mentioned, um, president and CEO, our company is circle less studio and we are an experience agency. So that's a newer term that we have used. I started my company almost 40 years ago. Corey, I left the banking world and decided to hang a shingle. I had one client, but I knew that I wanted to manage my day.
[00:01:41] Susan Quinn: A little bit differently than the financial institution that I work for. So fast forward, almost 40 years later, I merged with a company almost 25 years ago to bring the creative talent to the team. I, my business partner is a brilliant creative mind, Michelle Davis, and we, uh, together have grown Circle S Studio and our specialty, as we have learned over the years, probably not in day one, but we specialize in B2B.
[00:02:12] Susan Quinn: And we specialize in professional services and we specialize, I'm going to continue in the experiences of three things, a better brand that will create a better employee experience. And you do those two things well, and you will create a stronger client experience.
[00:02:34] Corey Quinn: Beautiful. So there's a lot to unpack there.
[00:02:38] Corey Quinn: I'm reminded of a book. forget the name, uh, Joseph Pine, maybe another author. He wrote, they wrote a book called The Experience Economy. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but the one takeaway I had from that book, it's, it made an impact on me. So I'm very, very fascinated by the work that you do. And I want to understand more, but I wanted to share that the impact, the book, the takeaway from The Experience Economy is really around how do you create a commercialized, experience that is economically viable.
[00:03:07] Corey Quinn: And the way to do that effectively based on the book is that you create a memory. So you create an experience that not is just forgettable, but is unforgettable. And that you create a memory that becomes an economically viable experience. So I thought I'd share that. So let me feed this back to you. So I'll make sure that I'm tracking.
[00:03:25] Corey Quinn: So you started 40 years ago, you're in banking, you came over, You had one client, beautiful, love that, about 25 years ago, you, you merged with another agency who brought more of a creative, sort of the creative partner. And then today you're focused in on B2B professional services. You're positioning yourself as an experienced agency where you bring together brand experience, employee experience, and then customer experience.
[00:03:50] Corey Quinn: Did I get that? That's correct.
[00:03:51] Susan Quinn: Yeah. And the operative word in that is the experience. And as you mentioned in the book, you know, if you can make them memorable and we're all doing the same thing, the agencies are doing, well, we all have our perhaps specialties, but in especially the world we're in and professional services, honestly, uh, an engineering firm do structural, but you're an engineering firm.
[00:04:18] Susan Quinn: I really do parcel out. The experience that you have from the moment you entered the brand to the way the team interacts with you to then creating the proverbial raving fans, you know, none of this honestly is new. It's just making sure that you create the relevancy of it for today, because our marketplace evolves, what people want to consume evolves.
[00:04:41] Susan Quinn: And I think the, the secret that I have found over my 40 years is just to continue to evolve. With a purpose, you know, that, that, that core needs to be crystal clear. And I feel like we do it better. It's, uh, I stumbled along the way to find the right, right path of it. But when, when we got the aha of where we were really connecting, it was extracting that and then creating a stronger framework around it.
[00:05:13] Susan Quinn: And happy to answer anything on that, that you would find inviting.
[00:05:18] Corey Quinn: Yeah. I think what I'm curious about is what was the aha that led to your realization that said, okay, this is something that we're particularly potentially really good at and the market needs it. Like what led to that aha?
[00:05:34] Susan Quinn: Well, when you start an agency, at least for me, I was willing to do many things.
[00:05:40] Susan Quinn: You know, I, I have a saying, my team would say, you can do anything. You can't do everything. So I had clarity around where I at least had a little bit of expertise or where I was comfortable. And, but one of my great mentors actually back when I was in banking, he, he had recommended me when I left the bank and he said, I would love for you to work with this client.
[00:06:04] Susan Quinn: I was East coast. He was West coast. And I went back to him when there was a second assignment and he gave me a tip. He said, don't say yes to everything. And I had had my little company of one for six months and I, I've never forgotten that. So I think it is okay to understand. And so that was. a germ of an idea germ sounds like a negative thing, but it was an idea that did carry forth with me.
[00:06:32] Susan Quinn: And so you asked the moment when I realized it, we were at this point, I had, I was more on the strategy side. I still am creating the business plans, the consulting side of it with the creative team and creating brands. That's what we were doing. And we would The aha came when, I don't know if you've ever gotten RFPs, but they would come in and we would be, we would be busy with our clients.
[00:07:03] Susan Quinn: And then we'd say, Oh my gosh, let's go for that RFP. Let's do it. And then we would stop everything. We would fill it out. We would spend forever. And the aha was in one of our management meetings, I made a comment. I said, you know what? When I go back and look at the win rates, we have never won An RFP in these industries ever, ever.
[00:07:29] Susan Quinn: And I said, what, why are we doing it? Let's look at what we continue to attract and what we were able to extract from that they were, and I'm going to, they weren't fun. And the business to consumer and fun little advertising there tended to be more professional. They were professional services. They were on the financial financial side.
[00:07:54] Susan Quinn: They were. Construction firms, they were, they were B2B. And so we then started to narrow our focus in professional services. So it was more of the, wow, we've never gotten it. What's the definition of insanity? Keep doing it and thinking we're going to get another result. And we, we just, we looked at where our success was and did that intersection of, you know, this is what we are attracting.
[00:08:21] Susan Quinn: This is what we love to do. And these are the types of clients we love to work with. And then we created a very clear vision and strategic plan around that.
[00:08:32] Corey Quinn: Can you talk a little bit about what you did to create that strategic plan once you had that aha moment, that clarity of like, Oh, Hey, this is an area where we really want to lean into.
[00:08:42] Corey Quinn: What did you do next?
[00:08:44] Susan Quinn: Well, I'm going to punctuate this story, 2008, 2009, we had a lot of financial clients and I don't know what you were doing in 2008, 2009, but let's just say there was a big burst in the economy. There was a financial meltdown and I was actually in India. At the time visiting my daughter who was doing, she was teaching at a school in Mumbai and thinking like we're getting bits and pieces of information.
[00:09:20] Susan Quinn: We land in New York and we're seeing the stock exchange and Lehman brothers crashing and thinking the world has literally fallen apart. We took a two week trip and now. The world that I knew is not the world that we came back to. So with a heavy emphasis in the financial market, we were, we were underwater.
[00:09:42] Susan Quinn: It was, we, we had maybe niched too much today. We, we have, we have, we, we expanded it to the three legged circle. Stool of not just having everything in one bucket, but the realization was, you know, we, we could actually go under if we don't figure out the right path for where we, we go forward. So if we expanded the focus and then brought in, who are the partners that can help us grow?
[00:10:15] Susan Quinn: We're not the first people to run a company. We're not the first people to try and do it smarter and better. And at that point. I spent a lot of my time. Who are the strategic partners who specialize in things that we don't? And so there was a financial person that came in to look at how we analyzed our books, the percentages, how to be more profitable, brought in agency management Institute that drew McClellan is brilliant.
[00:10:46] Susan Quinn: I give him so much. All he wants is for all of us to grow smarter and better. And just continue to surround ourself with what I call an ecosystem of who would be supportive partners that don't know or think the way I do, but they give us thoughts and insights of how to do it smarter, how to do it better.
[00:11:07] Susan Quinn: And Oh, by the way, can save time because we're not starting from scratch. So that would be the trajectory 2010, 11, 12, and boy, that meltdown lasted. We kept thinking it's got to get over. It's got to get over until. I wasn't even sure if we would survive, but the good news is we're here and we not only survived, but we have thrived since we made it through that, that difficult period.
[00:11:30] Corey Quinn: So you mentioned that you diversified from heavy concentration of financial Clients to a three legged stool. What was the, what were the two other legs of the stool?
[00:11:41] Susan Quinn: So we went from, we were heavy in financial and I mean, working with asset management firms, broker dealer firms, uh, community banks. So it was insurance companies that that was the bucket that we called financial.
[00:11:54] Susan Quinn: At the time we had one construction firm and we really loved that client. We've been working with them for 23 years and we said, Hmm, that industry is called AEC architecture, engineering, and construction. And our vision was, well, what if we expanded that? Leg of the stool. Well, today we work with clients all over the nation and you know, if you needed me to do anything in architecture, engineering, or construction, there would not be a house, a home or a building or anything, but we support a very start, you know, it's kind of that left and right brain, the art and science of what they do, and we, we have good partnerships with that.
[00:12:35] Susan Quinn: And then the third would just be in general, uh, more of a blanket B to B. So you mean CPA firms, law firms, just people whose business is to another business and that creates the third leg. So we like our portfolio, a more balanced portfolio, and it feels better to us so that like the global crisis, we, and you know, we had it again with the pandemic, you know, people that were heavy in certain industries got hit really hard.
[00:13:06] Corey Quinn: Restaurants is a good example. Dentistry was also hit really hard. Yeah, for sure. So, so you, you were able to take that learning from the financial crisis, diversify to incorporate a couple of different verticals at a level where you didn't say this, but I'm, I'm inferring that it's the right mix for, for you and your firm.
[00:13:29] Corey Quinn: You're, you're able to manage these different vertical markets and still feel like, yeah, we're diversified as well as we're also specialized in these ways. Is that
[00:13:39] Susan Quinn: fair? It is fair. Great question. You know, you can't be a specialist in everything. So some of it is we, we spend time and attend conferences and, and read a lot in the financial industry and AEC.
[00:13:54] Susan Quinn: I would say the third area is around. What does it take to create a better employee experience that leads to a client experience back to that, that flywheel, if you will, and we've done, we've done our own research in that. So we follow research, we attend conferences, and then we've done original research and we feel amongst our team, we can specialize in those.
[00:14:20] Susan Quinn: We would have to double, triple our team to add expertise beyond that. But you know, you just back to my, you can, we can do anything, we can't do everything. And so we've just decided where we feel we've got the greatest opportunity.
[00:14:36] Corey Quinn: How many employees do you have today?
[00:14:39] Susan Quinn: We have 16 full time FTEs. Full time, yeah.
[00:14:43] Susan Quinn: And, and we've got our, 1099s, a lot of agencies do that. And there are many things that support our consulting, our creative and our digital team. We might have other SEO specialists come in, web developers, you know, we design them. And so I would say with all of that combined, we're probably an agency at 35 to 40 on any given day.
[00:15:09] Susan Quinn: And, and that, that gives us an opportunity to do national work. I think we have maybe 75 clients in any given year with hundreds and hundreds of projects. So that's how we've been able to stay small a boutique, which is at least the vision that my business partner, Michelle and I have, we, we want boutique.
[00:15:30] Susan Quinn: We, we, we like that size, but through our circle of resources, we're able to. You know, serve as a, as a national firm.
[00:15:40] Corey Quinn: That's beautiful. I've been a part of a, of a fast growing, really big agency. And you know, there's pros and cons to every type of agency. Shape and size, you know, for sure. And I think a boutique agency doing, doing, doing things you love for people you love working with, I think is beautiful.
[00:15:57] Corey Quinn: You mentioned you, you go to associations and conferences in the financial industry, amongst others. How do you choose which associations to get involved in, in the conferences to go to?
[00:16:08] Susan Quinn: We look at where our clients are getting information and we attend those. And what we try to do every single time is can we be a speaker at that so that we don't just show up selling, but we show up being helpful and sharing knowledge that would, would assist them in, in growing their own companies.
[00:16:34] Susan Quinn: So that, that has been a strategy for the last 10 years, 11 years. And, you know, it's not always easy to break in or to go to those conferences, but that, that has been the primary way that we, we decide where we go.
[00:16:49] Corey Quinn: Can you speak more about what makes it more difficult to get involved in those conferences or to get inside of those networks?
[00:16:57] Susan Quinn: Well, I think every conference wants to know that you have something that is going to be attractive as a breakout session or as a keynote speaker. And, you know, we didn't Get it at the very beginning, you know, we weren't we weren't doing it, but and I would say for some, you know I I'm gonna give I'm talk out of both sides of my mouth Some of it is if you know that that's where your clients are hanging out then invest go and look at the conference Observe it see who's there.
[00:17:30] Susan Quinn: Take a look at the types of things that people are speaking about What are the breakout sessions? Go, go ahead and invest in what is it like to immerse yourself in that? And then go back and do a strategy on that. Okay. These are the types of speakers that are there. How can we be helpful? What could we do?
[00:17:47] Susan Quinn: So I think we just did a better job of positioning what we, you know, the write ups of it, you have to submit those things and doing it well in advance so that they, they've got an opportunity to read about us. So then that's, I'm going to move it back to us. Well, if. We're saying person a, our company, then does our website that does our social media channel.
[00:18:08] Susan Quinn: Are we, are we prolific in it? Or is it, you know, they're a one trick pony over there. They're just trying to show up. They've got one or two things. So I think you have to build. That rich content for your own company to then be able to have, have any sense of relevancy or yeah, you know, it'd be nice to have them.
[00:18:28] Susan Quinn: You know, the other thing that we've done, Corey, I mentioned original research. We worked to, we follow nine traits as in our strategic work that we have assembled. And it was an aha moment. I don't know. Maybe I'm just gonna say everything is 10 years ago, eight years ago. Why do some companies stand out and others just kind of show up?
[00:18:51] Susan Quinn: Like, what is it leadership? Like, what is the difference? And I got a little bit berserk downloading wall street journal articles on leadership. Well, yeah, that said, and we can just help people in our strategy sessions. And another aha came and, uh, Tammy Berry, who works with me closely on our consulting side, we started pulling together, you know, these are nine things that show up, whether they're public companies, private companies, case studies that we could find our own experience.
[00:19:24] Susan Quinn: And we started this list of nine and it, it would almost predict as we were, do we want to work with this client or not? Or do they have the opportunity to be more of a long term client? And when they had like all nine of these, And if you go to our website, you can find a quiz on it. You know, what are the nine traits for the highest performing, fastest growing companies?
[00:19:44] Susan Quinn: And so we went back to the, we said, let's do research and let's see what leaders think about these nine traits. And we got some really interesting feedback. There's very different attitudes to the nine that we have identified as traits. And if you go to our website, you can find a quiz on it. You know, what are the nine traits for the highest performing, fastest growing companies?
[00:20:07] Susan Quinn: And you can kind of do a quick, fun little quiz that, you know, more than anything, it spurs thought of what you need to do. None of them are remarkable. Most of them are, yeah, no kidding. But I think the part is that they, the companies that are doing well do all of them and they do them at a very high level.
[00:20:28] Susan Quinn: And it's almost like the dashboard of a plane, you know, they're flying the plane and they've got all these instruments that they're looking at. And sometimes you have to focus on takeoff. Sometimes you have to focus on landing. Sometimes you have to just focus on having the right employee. We're just sailing along here, but it's knowing what levers to pull, but you've got a clear dashboard.
[00:20:49] Susan Quinn: And these companies that I, I love, and we look at it too, but it's like this easy path, because I think we complicate things. If I, you know, the biggest lesson I've learned is. Ask and stop trying to solve everything, empower others and stop trying to do everything. And amazing things come on the other end of it.
[00:21:09] Corey Quinn: Yeah, that's right.
[00:21:11] Susan Quinn: Of the nine, which one's your favorite? Culture of continuous learning. Keep bettering your best. Can you talk more about that? Well, the attitude, there were three distinct attitudes that came out of the research that we found fascinating. And, you know, we asked them to look at all the nine traits and which ones they thought were good and which ones they thought were bad.
[00:21:30] Susan Quinn: There's, and it was almost a third, a third, a third of the executives. And it was basically C suite. I think it was 97 percent were C suite. A third of them were satisfied that said, yeah, we do most of these and we do as much as we can, but we already are kind of at the top of our game. We're just going to keep doing what we're doing.
[00:21:50] Susan Quinn: So they're satisfied. Simplifiers picked and choose really more of the process. They were very process oriented, internally oriented, but then a third were aspiring they valued what we think are the top traits, the most. They valued guiding principles of their brand, their purpose, their vision, their mission, and their core values.
[00:22:16] Susan Quinn: They thought that was foundational. We do too. They valued and spend a lot of time enhancing the employee experience. And we believe in that, that then will guide the right path for creating memorable, aha, wow, client experiences. And oh, by the way, they're never there. They keep, even if they have a banner year, they're like, what's next?
[00:22:43] Susan Quinn: What's going to disrupt us? So they look at all the other traits and they are anticipating what's coming. They're curious. I would say they're curious and they're constantly learning. So that would be. Yeah. Just keep learning. That's my
[00:22:57] Corey Quinn: favorite. Hey, it's Corey. I hope you're enjoying this episode and I want to let you know that I have a new best selling book that has just come out that gives you my proven system to escape founder led sales.
[00:23:10] Corey Quinn: It's called anyone, not everyone. And it's been endorsed by Aaron Ross, April Dunford, Dr. Benjamin Hardy, John Rulon and many others. If you'd like to get the audio book absolutely for free, there's a link below in the description or you can simply go to anyone, not everyone. When it comes to attracting new clients, let's say within the financial industry, what are some of the things that you're, you're doing to, to expand your business in that vertical?
[00:23:40] Susan Quinn: Well, we look at once again, cornerstone content. That we create and we think about the audience that we want to attract. I mentioned asset management firms and broker deal firms. They each have unique. So what are their needs? What did they need to do? And we. Are very meticulous of crafting a content roadmap for that audience.
[00:24:08] Susan Quinn: And we disseminate it. We were very clear on blogs are very clear on webinars that may be specific to one industry. I've got a podcast that's new this year that is industry agnostic, really, but it is more B2B specifically because that's what we know. And then I would say the other component. Is being intentional in how we give back to our community.
[00:24:38] Susan Quinn: So we are making sure that, you know, I, I love being able to give back and expect absolutely nothing in return. You know, that is the ultimate giving back, but I do think we're known by the company we keep. So we. You know, we're intentional like the NS society, multiple sclerosis had a need. Someone came to us and said, can you help us with this big event?
[00:25:02] Susan Quinn: Can you help us with a video? And we're like, yeah. And so the, the giving back, I think, and it's that those would be the ways we're doing it. And we have a macro micro nano list. So we do have a top 25 and it, then it, it's hard to do it, but who are we being intentional about where a member of our team may be, if we're in the area, we have coffee with someone, Hey, we're in the area, you know, is there anyone that could give us a soft introduction?
[00:25:34] Susan Quinn: So you look at who might be there. And then, you know, sometimes you just, it's a hope and a prayer that it gets you. I do believe, I do believe that if you visualize it, even if they're bigger than you expect, don't edit your dreams. Do not edit your dreams. Think big, go big, and then big things will happen.
[00:25:58] Corey Quinn: I'm in alignment with you on that. And I also like being specific. Tell the universe who you want to bring into your life. I want this person to come into my life. And if you don't, if you don't tell the universe what you want, it's not gonna get it to you. So That's right. I love the fact that you have a, a top 25 list.
[00:26:13] Corey Quinn: That's great. It's important, I think. Yeah. Do you do, so I, based on this conversation, I'm not getting the sense that you're gonna, you're doing a lot of sort of outbound, you're, you're doing any direct selling to this top 25 list. It's more relationship driven. Is that? Content potentially. Yeah.
[00:26:31] Susan Quinn: Yes, exactly.
[00:26:32] Susan Quinn: Relationship and content driven and creating events through the webinar that we invite, invite them in. You know, it's, and what we've started to do is segment our webinars. I mean, every now and then, like I said, it's industry agnostic, but we segment our database, if it really can skew to. One of our areas of expertise.
[00:26:56] Susan Quinn: Then we create that line of it's for your industry so they know it's the right message to the right people at the right time. We also delineate, there are times, if you think about companies that we work with, the marketing team has one lens. The human resources has another lens. The CEO or the COO may have another, and we literally get that granular.
[00:27:19] Susan Quinn: As we look at content that what, where do we need to simplify? So it's like, we're who's on the other end and how would they be most likely to receive that information? We don't get it right all the time, but we are win rate. I just ask in management meeting the other day, what is our, our win rate? I, I know we're at least at 50 percent this year, but I think we generally win around 63%.
[00:27:45] Susan Quinn: And I don't know what the industry average is, but
[00:27:49] Corey Quinn: that's, we're winning more than we were doing really well. 63%. Yeah. That's, that's golden. Looking back over the 40 years, are there, have there been any moments sort of major growth milestones along the way?
[00:28:01] Susan Quinn: Well, I think I mentioned them when I talked about the, I wasn't sure if we were going to survive and it was, who can we bring in to be strategic partners?
[00:28:14] Susan Quinn: I think when we realized we couldn't do everything and we trusted people to come in and be part of the partnership, that was a little bit. And so my, my business partner says, I hate when you say game changing, but it was game changing. So she, she'll have to get over that. But it really was, you know, when you see major yet you, you move and you're learning from others.
[00:28:42] Susan Quinn: Yeah. I mean, for me, the way that I, I like to spend my life is who has walked in my shoes Either in my exact industry or something that is similar that I can learn from. And they may, I might know them personally. I may know them through their podcasts, their books, but I'm, I have that, that group and I literally map it out.
[00:29:08] Susan Quinn: For myself each year, and then who are the peers? Who are the people that were really doing the same thing? Because that experience is different. And then also paying it back to those that haven't even stepped in our shoes. And I love the, those that have experienced it, those ahead of me, those who are experiencing it with me and those who haven't, I learned so much at each one of those levels.
[00:29:33] Susan Quinn: And there's a lot to gather from it. It, I think it keeps me curious, humble, and you know, there's a lot to learn.
[00:29:41] Corey Quinn: How has your leadership style changed over these years?
[00:29:45] Susan Quinn: Well, maybe my team should answer that versus me, but I believe that we unintentionally diminish if we aren't aware of our. How we communicate.
[00:29:59] Susan Quinn: So the style is. I believe in order to grow, you have to prune. And my, I hope my leadership style, I think I'm very candid with care and I'm very clear and I bring in the smartest and, and people who know how to do their job and empower them with clarity of role. And then let them do their job. So I'm not a micromanager for sure.
[00:30:28] Susan Quinn: I just, I care about growing leaders and hopefully they see that I'm, I'm helping to grow them. And, and what's interesting, if you teach it, you learn. There's a lot when you're the one teaching it and you learn it all over again. But, you know, I would hope that I, they see me as empowering them with clarity of role and clarity of vision.
[00:30:51] Susan Quinn: And clarity of guiding principles.
[00:30:54] Corey Quinn: Have you ever hired a salesperson to help you to grow the business?
[00:30:59] Susan Quinn: No.
[00:31:00] Corey Quinn: It's always been internal. And do you, do you manage sales today? Do all the deals come through you or do you have someone who manages that part of the business?
[00:31:09] Susan Quinn: For me, I know it is selling, but for me, it is developing business.
[00:31:15] Susan Quinn: So I don't think of it through a sales lens. And it is through that lens. Every member of our team can be part of developing Relationships and I think developing relationships is how we develop business. So it's throughout the organization and I will say that I have my little whiteboard next to my desk.
[00:31:42] Susan Quinn: I map out, we, we do, we do a racy model. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but what are you responsible or accountable? You know, where do you need to be consulted? Where do you need to be informed? And I basically, for myself, for management team, for who, You know, reports to them. Everyone is clear on that.
[00:32:00] Susan Quinn: And, and we're constantly, how are you going to move yourself to the next one? Like, how are you going to replace? How are you going to move those skills up? So it's like a chess game. We're just, we're moving the pieces around on the board. But on my whiteboard that I, I was going to say, 50 percent of my time is around, um, Developing business.
[00:32:19] Susan Quinn: So I do think about it. Yeah, I do. And then I break down the rest of the time. Is it perfect? Is it how it happens every day? Absolutely not. It is never, but it's that visual guide for me of, okay, what am I doing this week? How do I break up my week? What is my focus time?
[00:32:41] Corey Quinn: Yeah. Beautiful. As a boutique agency, it makes sense that as a, as a founding.
[00:32:47] Corey Quinn: Partner of the of the agency that you're that you're developed that you're heavily developed in new business development. It's always interesting to ask Agency owners and founders if they do have a sales Resource dedicated sales resource. What's the process of hiring them? How did that go? It's always a big milestone for agency owners, founders to escape what I call escape founder led sales in the cases where that that's relevant, not, not relevant for everybody now, obviously.
[00:33:14] Corey Quinn: Well, I think this has been really wonderful to get to know you and your practice and your areas of focus. I would love to hear your parting advice for any agency owner who maybe is the version of your agency before you had that insight, that aha, that, Hey, we need to bring in some outside specialists and we need to really focus in on a couple of different things.
[00:33:39] Corey Quinn: What advice would you have to that agency owner today?
[00:33:43] Susan Quinn: Well, first and foremost, you have to be clear on your guiding principles, and we are big, big believers in that. What is your purpose? That's your why. Where are you going? What's your north star? And Don't just say to make more money that we're all ultimately needing to survive to grow.
[00:34:05] Susan Quinn: So that's a given, but the vision to really push on that your mission is how you do it. So what, what's the secret sauce? How are you doing it better? And then your core values should be known. You can say them, they will be how you get out of your mind and it will then be how You hire and yes, how you dismiss people if they don't live your guiding principles for us.
[00:34:32] Susan Quinn: It's respect, collaboration and drive. And if there isn't respect, there's no place for you at our shop. You collaborate early and often because together we are better. And if you don't have a fire in your belly, it doesn't have to be. You're the biggest extrovert, but you do have a fire. To continue to learn and grow and to serve our clients at the highest level.
[00:34:53] Susan Quinn: You're a good match for us with different skill sets. But with that defined, you will then, I would say step two is to assess what do you do better. else. And if you are the founder and you are doing everything, then extract right now what only you can do. And then what would you supplement and start to spread that out?
[00:35:19] Susan Quinn: You cannot do everything. Start pruning because when you prune, others will grow. And when you bring people in, you will grow. I think we tried to keep our cards too close to our, our best. And when we started to open up of where we were, high level numbers for our agency, where all of it made sense of the math, the more we invited people in, the more we cared about them, the more we have grown.
[00:35:46] Susan Quinn: So it's, you know, don't keep the cards, clarity of what you're doing, and then know what you do better and don't try to do everything. Do what you do best.
[00:35:56] Corey Quinn: I love all that. At what point in the sort of an entrepreneur or business owner's journey, should they really be focusing in on defining these things like the guiding principle, the why, the north star, the things you shared, as well as asking the questions, what can we do better?
[00:36:11] Corey Quinn: At what point does that, should they be focusing in on this day one or after a certain milestone or something else?
[00:36:18] Susan Quinn: I think you should have it from day one. You may not have the complete strategic plan, but know why you're doing it and who you're trying to attract. I was just with a young lady who is leaving corporate America and she wants to work with nonprofits.
[00:36:31] Susan Quinn: And in a one hour meeting, she said, you're blowing my mind because I now have a job. Thought I was talking to everyone and I feel like I've got three very distinct lanes. So know the lanes. Just, it sounds counterintuitive that if you narrow, you would grow because you think, Oh my gosh, I'm going to eliminate this.
[00:36:51] Susan Quinn: It's the exact opposite. It's counterintuitive, but a narrowed focus with language that will attract and repel is how you grow your business. You're really clear. I mean, you know, if you, if we've got a medical issue, we could go to a generalist. It's the Chinese menu. Yeah. Okay. Well, you've got all of these things.
[00:37:08] Susan Quinn: Which one are you going to choose? Well, I, you know, I don't know, but when you know specifically what you need and that's your specialist, then you can find who that specialist is. So don't be afraid to niche out. Don't be afraid.
[00:37:21] Corey Quinn: I love that. Last question. What's your motivation?
[00:37:26] Susan Quinn: Well, I mentioned it earlier, keep bettering my best, keep, keep finding something new.
[00:37:31] Susan Quinn: I love each day and I've got my own, you know, what are the great things that are happening? I think we can get caught up on what's not. I like to flip the lens. I like to make sure that I am continuing to be a good listener. We have two ears and one mouth and make sure I'm not talking too much. There's so much to learn.
[00:37:53] Susan Quinn: If we. Also allow quiet time to reflect on what we're doing and why and what's next. And if you give yourself time to reflect on that, the, the answers are there, the clarity is there.
[00:38:06] Corey Quinn: Well, the, the talking you've done today has been extremely generous and myself as well as I'm sure the audience have learned a lot.
[00:38:13] Corey Quinn: So thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom.
[00:38:18] Susan Quinn: Well, it has been a pleasure and honor. Thank you for having me.
[00:38:21] Corey Quinn: Absolutely. We'll talk soon. That's it for today. I'm Corey Quinn, and I hope you join me again, next time on the deep specialization podcast. If you received value from the show, please go to apple podcasts and leave us a review.
[00:38:34] Corey Quinn: Thanks. And we'll see you soon.