Our 10-Year Goal to Empower 20,000 Businesses

Jordan: Welcome to the For The Daring Growth Seekers podcast. My name is Jordan. Jacqueline is also here with us. Hi, Jack. Good to have you back for another Behind the Mic episode, where we’re having a look at growing a marketing company during the AI era. But not only that, but also trying to grow a company. I shouldn’t say trying to grow a company. We are growing a company as a couple as well. So husband and wife, how do we…

Jacqueline: It has some challenges, doesn’t it? Well, it’s kind of turned into these episodes kind of like our therapy sessions without the therapist.

Jordan: Without the therapist.

Jacqueline: Maybe the therapist should come in after.

Jordan: Well, no, the therapist can be the listeners, who can send me emails with feedback on how I should be talking. Yeah, well, because I’m usually the one in the issues.

Jacqueline: I don’t need it.

Jordan: Yeah, you’re fine. You’re fine. You see, I’m trying to already butter you up.

Jacqueline: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that.

Jordan: So yeah, if you do have any therapy pieces of feedback, join at donebynine.com. Greatly appreciated.

Jacqueline: Yeah. Should we have our HR section on there too?

Jordan: Yeah, well, we probably need to talk about our HR processes a little bit. Another episode there. But yeah, so essentially Behind the Mic is a chance for us to share how we build our business. We’re under our belt now with this young business. We’re still learning every day. But we kind of reflected at the start of this year. No, it was at the end of last year, when we actually did a podcast episode together on our old podcast. We got a lot of cool feedback around sharing that thing, around some of the struggles we have and some of the cool things we do.

Jacqueline: I think it’s like actually being true and honest, right?

Jordan: Well, and also there’s more, also that reflection on when I was thinking of taking the plunge, or even a couple of years into the business, I would always try and look for real stories of other people doing similar things to what I wanted to do. And so I guess it’s the other thing. I was like, this is a way for us. Obviously, we serve a lot of our clients in our marketing agency with marketing strategies and things like that. But I thought that this is a cool way to kind of serve people as well, in terms of sharing what we’re learning and how we work together as a couple. So if there are any other business owners who are trying to build a business with their spouse, or trying to build a business throughout this crazy AI era that we’re all going through at the moment…

Jacqueline: It’s true and authentic.

Jordan: Yeah, hopefully you can kind of get a little bit out of that as well. So therapy is in session. We are talking today around our goals. And this is kind of a nerve-wracking one.

Jacqueline: It is.

Jordan: Because I don’t think we’ve ever really publicly discussed our goals and our rocks. Now, we’ve discussed in the past the business process we’re talking about, which is EOS. We run a lot of our business through EOS. And part of that process was to build what’s called a Vision/Traction Organizer, and the rocks.

Jacqueline: So the rocks themselves, they’re the big ideas, right? They’re the important items that fill the jar first.

Jordan: Yeah, correct. But I guess we don’t have any rocks if we don’t have kind of an idea about where we want to head as a business as well. Which is where that Vision/Traction Organizer has been quite helpful. So this is something we worked through with our business coach, Adam. So we went big, and we pulled out a 10-year target. Do you want to share the 10-year target?

Jacqueline: You hear about that BHAG, that big, hairy, audacious goal. So that kind of goal. That kind of scares you, right?

Jordan: Well, they’re supposed to scare us. And I guess that was the whole point. I’m just bringing it up on my screen now, just so we can kind of go through it. So the big 10-year target that we set down, and the last time we did this was about six months ago, I guess, where we actually started to build out these 10-year targets. So our big 10-year target, to give you a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at Done By Nine, is we want to, within 10 years’ time, have empowered 20,000 purposeful organisations.

Jordan: And that’s a scary number when you think about it, but I think, A, there’s ways that we can do it. We want to empower, whether that’s working one-on-one with clients, whether it’s having people, organisations listening to this podcast, or being a part of our other communities that we have. We want to, within 10 years, confidently be able to say that we have been able to support and help 20,000 other organisations grow. How does that make you feel?

Jacqueline: Yep, scary. But there’s 10 years, right? So there’s a lot of rungs on the ladder to climb to get there. But what our goal is to do is to use these rocks, break them down each quarter, stay on track with that vision, and chip away at it.

Jordan: Yeah, and I think, look, I think we’re well on the way to achieving it. 20,000 seems like a massive number, and that number we did go back and forth on.

Jacqueline: We did. We got too comfortable.

Jordan: So Adam, our business coach, essentially said, you look a little bit comfortable with that number. We probably even started with 1,000, and he’s like, that’s just ridiculous. You could do that in a year. So he really pushed us, and that was cool. So that is the big goal of Done By Nine and our community For The Daring Growth Seekers: to empower 20,000 purposeful organisations.

Jordan: So the other thing I wanted to put as part of this as well, as part of our goals, was we then broke that down into our three-year picture, our one-year picture, which we don’t need to go into full details about on this particular podcast. But the other big thing was, once we have that big goal, that 10-year target, we then break it down into rocks. But also, we really wanted to think about the three uniques that we have with our organisation to help us get to that particular goal.

Jordan: So our three uniques, just to give you a bit of a thought starter, is that we use purposeful AI technology, we focus on growth through partnership and through partnership interactions with our clients, and we provide clarity through strategy. So those are our three uniques that we have. And the proven process, the way that we do that, the way that we work with our clients, through two ways, which is our Done By Nine Marketing Blend. That’s our first proven process for our agency clients. And then we’re obviously building our other community base, For The Daring Growth Seekers, as well, which is where this podcast kind of comes from.

Jordan: I mean, I don’t know, hopefully with us sharing that, hopefully you can get an understanding about where we’re heading as a business, and why we do what we’re doing here while we’re sitting on this podcast right now, you know? So can you tell us through the rocks? Because that’s the other big part that we have as part of these goals. We’ve got the goals, we’ve got the 10-year target, and that gives us real direction about, okay, what things do we need to do to be able to get there? So that breaks it down into the rocks. So give us another quick look as to what the rocks are.

Jacqueline: So we obviously have company rocks, and then essentially, from those company rocks, they’re then broken down to personal rocks for each person in the team, that connect back to our company rocks. So they’re helping us to move forward, and they’re helping us to get traction towards that 10-year goal, which is obviously broken down to three and five years. So the rocks are specific, yeah? They’re measurable, they’re achievable, they’re relevant, and they’re time-bound, because we each get a new rock every 90 days.

Jordan: Correct. And I guess the reason we’ve chosen these rocks is we can see that they are like really clear goals that will actually help us achieve that 10-year target. And I guess that’s the reason we wanted to kind of share the 10-year target with you, is because…

Jacqueline: We want to bring you along on the journey, right? Like, where we set these rocks together in our leadership team, and then we…

Jordan: They trickle down to the team.

Jacqueline: They trickle down to the team, and they obviously have to be relevant for where the business is at now, to hit that one-year plan.

Jordan: So let’s share some of them, because I think we might as well, if we’re going to open the curtain, we might as well share actually some of the rocks. We won’t share who’s kind of responsible for what, just to keep it a bit private for the team who are currently working on some of these things at the moment. But the first one, have you got them up on your computer as well?

Jacqueline: I’m just getting there, yeah, yeah.

Jordan: Because I’ve got mine here as well. So one of them is building out our community of For The Daring Growth Seekers. So one of the rocks we have is community growth builder. And what this person is responsible for doing is helping to build our community of actively engaging new and existing members to that community of For The Daring Growth Seekers.

Jacqueline: Yeah. So, I mean, that’s truly important to us, and it’s also one of our core values as well, the daring growth seekers, but also showing that we are passionately dedicated to our clients. It’s like, you’re not just going to hear from us at the start of the month and the end of the month. We’re on this journey with you together.

Jordan: And the community growth builder rock, we’ve set a description. The goal is to cultivate a thriving community of daring growth seekers. So we’re going to look for those right people. And the challenge there is building a strategy to not only attract new people to come and join us, but also to help nurture their participation as part of that programme as well.

Jacqueline: It’s about creating that community, right? Like, somebody may have this question, and they just want to get other people’s views on it, who are in a similar situation. So put it out there to the group and start a conversation.

Jordan: As you said before, obviously all of our rocks are SMART rocks as well. So we do have some measures of success. So just to give you an example of the measure of success for that particular rock, that person is responsible to try and get 20 active members in that community within 90 days. And look, we’re well on the way of being able to hit that rock probably very early.

Jacqueline: And if you do. But we also need those measures to be relevant and achievable, right?

Jordan: Yeah, 100%. And I guess the other thing to think about is that it is achievable, and it means that we can kind of smash those rocks, and kind of find new kind of opportunities and new kind of issues that may come through that process of getting to that goal, I guess, you know.

Jacqueline: Yeah, like sometimes once we achieve a rock, it also brings another issue or opportunity to be discussed about, which then further down the track might become another rock. But it’s also bringing our whole team on the journey with us. It’s not just about the leader, the visionary, going, this is the way we’re going, this is the direction. And it’s the transparency, and that everyone’s feeding into that and helping achieve that goal. So to be able to celebrate at the end of these 90 days that we’ve hit this target is also momentum within the team and the culture.

Jordan: And if you do want to help us hit that target, you can join For The Daring Growth Seekers, because it’ll help.

Jacqueline: It will.

Jordan: Yeah. It’ll help the numbers, and make sure we can actually achieve some of these things as well, if you’re interested in learning what we’re actually doing in that space. We’ve only got a few, like I said, we’re keeping it nice and small to kind of kick off, to make sure we’ve got a real viable product. Every time we do these therapy sessions, we always come up with other therapy sessions we could do. So maybe we could actually do a therapy session on what we’re trying to build there with Daring Growth Seekers as well.

Jacqueline: There’s an opportunity there, yeah.

Jordan: It’s kind of like a whole separate arm to our agency clients and our big clients that we’re kind of working with. It’s an opportunity for us to also engage people of different budgets as well.

Jacqueline: And they’re building alongside us, right?

Jordan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. So another example of a rock. What’s another rock that we’ve got the team working on at the moment?

Jacqueline: So another rock that we’ve got there is the creative visionary, you know? So the idea behind this one here was…

Jordan: A bit of a visual studio.

Jacqueline: Yeah, essentially we identified as part of our planning that one thing that we lack as a business is, we do some amazing work. The team does some incredible work. We do some cool stuff. And we just don’t share it enough. And there’s all this stuff behind the scenes that, when we talk to prospective clients or we’re at a networking function, we said, oh, no, we were the team behind that rollout of, I don’t know, the airport’s new solar strategy. People are like, oh, we had no idea that was you guys that were doing that. So we’re like, how do we express that? Because a lot of that stuff is strategic, right? So it’s really hard to get a visual on that. But it’s about how can we break this down so that the clients, the community, can see that journey along the way.

Jordan: True. So then this rock in particular is building out what we’re calling a visual studio, which is essentially a way for us to build our client testimonials and some of the awesome projects that we’re working on. Because there are massive notable projects that we haven’t spoken about before, that we do behind the scenes. And I think it’s time that we share a lot of that. But the big focus I put on this one as well was that having a visual studio on the website, I think it’s really important. But I also really want to build up the people that have contributed to that. So instead of it Done By Nine being this project, who is that person?

Jacqueline: People. Who is the team members creating the brand, creating the strategic thinking? Some projects have three or four team members touching base. They might have that one client lead, but it’s not all done by that one person.

Jordan: Because I think it’s true that we are obviously building a business, and Done By Nine, and how we work. But I’ve always tried to think about, I don’t expect that our employees and the people on our team right now are going to stay with us forever and ever and ever. So we’ve got to allow them to build up their CV, their projects, their styles, their strengths.

Jacqueline: Their value.

Jordan: Yeah, so that if they did need a change in their career or anything like that, we are literally giving them the best kind of chance to continue to grow, for as long as their career is active.

Jacqueline: Definitely putting the pedestal out there of, everyone do your best work, and let’s put it on show, essentially.

Jordan: Yeah, so essentially we’re trying to think of a way. And again, this is a rock that we’ve set for a member of the team. That person’s accountable to get it done. They don’t have to get it completely all done themselves, so they’ll be pulling in different team members to help. But over the next 90 days, we’re going to build out this new section, this visual studio. How that looks, I have no idea. We’ve seen a few concepts so far. That’s for that person to look at. All we’ve given is some real strong measures of success. That is that it needs to be something really visual that we can put on the website, that we can also then put across to our social media. And it needs to be attributed to people, not just to Done By Nine, but the people behind that as well.

Jacqueline: Kind of like a credits, you know. Taking it a bit more personal, right? So people can take pride in their work. How it gets done is brainstorming ideas, chatted through as a team at our Level 10 meetings or our team summit. And then that person touches base with who they need to after that.

Jordan: And how does that rock contribute to our overall goals? What it’s doing is it’s trying to show us as a team that businesses can and should choose to work with when they’re looking for specific marketing tasks to be done. So that, obviously, going back to that 10-year target, 20,000 businesses over the next 10 years, we need to have really solid backing, really solid client stories, to be able to get to that target. So that’s why it’s a real key thing that we’re looking at.

Jacqueline: Yeah, so that’s why it was decided as one of the company rocks. It’s been traced through, essentially, the ladder rungs of the 10-year goal, the three-year goal, the one-year goal, of how we’re going to get there. It’s the trace line. And this is the most important, or one of the rocks that are important this quarter, and that we need to tackle.

Jordan: So those are two rocks. They’re very external rocks, and rocks that people will see out in the marketplace as we continue to develop and grow those. The other one that I want to touch on is one that kind of pulls right back to a process behind the scenes. And that’s, we have a tool with our Marketing Blend, but we also have a tool called our Idea Incubator. And our Idea Incubator is something that we find is really helpful for clients.

Jordan: So to give you a bit of a background, when we’re working with a new client, we’ll build out what we call an Idea Incubator, which has all the different tactics that we identify can actually help propel growth for that client. It always attaches back to one of their core growth goals, or the core KPIs that they’re working towards. We set how we’re going to get it done. We set what the priority is for it. But the Idea Incubator has sat a little bit stale for a bit too long. So we want to reinvigorate how we use it, because it’s such a core part of what we do with our clients. And we’ve just kind of let it sit there and grow slowly.

Jacqueline: But we need to give it that little bit. We need to ramp it up. It’s there, but it’s not getting the focus that it’s needed. So we’re kind of using one of our own core values, which is inspiringly curious, of how we can turn this into more of an opportunity and get light on this. So the idea is kind of growing on how we can stay focused in that area and get the best out of it for our clients.

Jordan: And how we improve the process. And again, there’s a set person on the team who’s looking after this. And again, we’ve seen a couple of concept ideas. They’ve come up with some really cool ideas around even how could we gamify this slightly more for clients, to engage them a bit more. So there’s some really cool things that are coming out of this, that we’ll kind of work with that person to see about what can be achieved, whether we need to break it into another 90-day rock.

Jacqueline: I think this one might grow to another rock for the next quarter. I think it has now got two parts.

Jordan: Well, definitely. The measure of success we’d set down for this one, so reading it off here, was to document and update the process by the end of the rock period, and then an implementation plan in place for us to follow after that.

Jacqueline: Yes, yes.

Jordan: I think that’s the other big key thing here with the rocks, is making sure it is really achievable, so that if it is kind of looking at a certain part of the business process, that we can still see the real value in getting that done. And there’s immediate success in being able to get this new plan in place of how we use the Idea Incubator as a team. But then how do we then turn it into something that’s really special for clients, really unique, and is actually going to help drive their business growth, because that’s what we’ve seen so far, you know?

Jacqueline: Yeah, I think that’s where, within our own team, that core value of inspiringly curious is kind of going to grow that to something more, like gamifying it. Where’s that going?

Jordan: It’s funny. We have visitors come to our office all the time, and they sometimes use desks. One of the latest visitors to our office happens to be a developer, a computer developer, a tech developer, and he overhears some of my conversations with the team. And I think his ears prick up. Hopefully we can start to develop out some of these ideas to actually come to fruition. What we’ve built so far is amazing, and these tools are great, and the clients are using them now, but how do we take it to the next level? Because I guess…

Jacqueline: Well, could this become one of the biggest differences for our clients, to be able to tap into this Idea Incubator?

Jordan: A bit more often, yeah.

Jacqueline: Instead of doing the daily to-dos, tick, tick, tick, I’ve done three posts, tick, I’ve done this. How can they grow and get more?

Jordan: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I guess that comes down to, again, that big 10-year goal, 20,000 organisations. We need to be thinking about, if we’re going to be able to service that many people over a 10-year period, we need processes and systems and kind of unique things to us. To, A, attract people to us, but also actually be able to service them, and actually give them the best quality of service, which we’ve been so proud of being able to do over the past five years. So how do we continue to grow that, and how do we build the business to be able to sustain that level over time, you know?

Jacqueline: True. And I think the rocks help us with the structure in doing that. It helps us to keep on track, and it helps us keep honest within ourselves. Like, how can we deliver it to our clients in the honest way possible?

Jordan: So that is three examples, three rocks that we are working on as a team. And hopefully that’s given you a bit of an understanding about, A, what our rocks are, what a rock even is, how it tracks back to our unique value and positioning statements that we have. And also back to that scary goal, that BHAG goal, the 20,000 organisations that we will be supporting over the next 10 years. It’ll be interesting. Hopefully, we’re still running this podcast in 10 years.

Jacqueline: Our therapy sessions.

Jordan: Hopefully, the therapy sessions allow us to still be chatting around this in 10 years’ time.

Jacqueline: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the therapy session will be in true essence in 90 days, right? Like, when these rocks are… are we celebrating?

Jordan: Yeah, so look, we will keep you updated with these rocks. And I guess also what we wanted to get across in this podcast was, A, these are some of the cool things that we’re working on in the background. But B, again, we want to kind of lift the curtain and take you along for the ride. So this is the introduction to those rocks. Let’s touch base, see how they’re going once we get some feedback from the team.

Jacqueline: Totally. It’s going to be interesting to see how they kind of develop over time. And I know that they’re going to make a massive impact on our business as we continue to grow and evolve, yeah.

Jordan: Yeah. Well, again, thank you so much for joining us, Jack.

Jacqueline: Thank you.

Jordan: For sharing some of the thoughts behind these harebrained ideas that we have in building this business. And here’s to the next 10 years, and we’ll see you 20,000 businesses down the track.

Jacqueline: So, yeah, let’s celebrate at the end of these 90 days, too.

Jordan: Yeah, let’s do it. Okay. Thank you again for joining us on another Behind the Mic episode of For The Daring Growth Seekers podcast. We’ll see you on the next one.