Tristan Wright:

That'd be nice. It'd be probably a bit. A bit too big to. To maintain, but it's a cool backdrop, so. Yeah. Whereabouts are you based?

Ryan Jenkins:

Melbourne. Southeast barracks.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. You're not too far from me. I'm in. I'm in Bond Beach. Oh, nice. So awesome. Yeah.

Tristan Wright:

Right. On Patterson River.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah. Beautiful, Matt. Yeah.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. So it's a. It's a nice place to live, that's for sure.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah. Yeah. Bond beach is good.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. How long have you been buried for?

Ryan Jenkins:

So when I was six, my parents were in Noble Park North. Yep. And then we moved to Nariwaran and then when I was 19, I moved one

suburb up to Berwick. So I've. Been there ever since.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah, yeah, I've. I've had, yeah. Lots of friends in, in the Barrack area. Friends go to school at Barrack, all of that sort of stuff. Yeah. So,

yeah, thanks for responding to my email. So I'm sure you get lots of people emailing you, but whether it's for podcasts or cold emails

pitching you stuff.

Tristan Wright:

So, yeah, there's so much, so much white noise, I guess, in our inboxes. So. Yeah, yeah, basically what I'm doing just, I'm like, yeah, let's

do a podcast talking to marketing branding agencies where we can share our stories, what's working, what's not working, just to

support, to support the greater community kind of thing. Yeah, cool. Love it. Are you cool to do it? Just like, for me, I'm like, let's be

casual.

Tristan Wright:

Let's get it done straight away. Are you cool if we, yeah, if we get straight into it kind of thing. Yeah.

Ryan Jenkins:

Guys. Yeah, man.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. Before I do it, just tell me, like, do you know, do you know much about who I am or any of the.

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Ryan Jenkins:

From last week when I looked at your LinkedIn profile and website? So you're a business coach.

Tristan Wright:

You can put me in that. Yeah, put me in that bucket. So I hate, I don't necessarily like the terminology business coach, but when we talk

SEO and marketing, you have to, have to have a category. So. Yeah. So tell me a bit about. Before I get going, tell me a bit about Hype

Society and your story.

Ryan Jenkins:

Do you remember a company called Digital Eagles. Yes. I founded.

Tristan Wright:

That Digital Eagles was Digital Eagles based out of.

Ryan Jenkins:

Nari. Warren. Waterman. Yeah, Waterman. Yep.

Tristan Wright:

Do you have a business partner or someone else in Digital?

Ryan Jenkins:

Dan Sim and Shanika Pathy. Yeah, Dan.

Tristan Wright:

Yep. So I know Dan. I remember. Yep, yep.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yes. I founded that with Dan. Ran that for about five and a half years, ended up selling that to Venture ip. After that and then so

founded the Hype Society because I didn't want to be just a digital marketing gun for hire anymore. I wanted to be more of an

integrated, more of an integrated sort of boutique service provider. So less clients spending more money that were stickier and were

providing more value to is why we created the Hype Society in this way. So we have most of the four quadrants in terms of marketing

covered.

Ryan Jenkins:

We have branding and communications, we do website design and development, we do digital marketing and delivery and we do

content production and creation. So most clients that need any of those four things done, we do very, very well. We have a mix of

contractors, service provider partners and then also internal, you know, PAYG staff that do that do the work depending on the client

and the opportunity. So our clients really are what we would call a mid market, you know, 2 million to 50 million. They're a growth

focused founder, CEO leader that has passed product market fit, that really wants to grow their business or take their marketing to the

next level. Or they're an under resourced marketing manager that understands the strategy, doesn't have the team or the expertise to

be able to execute on that strategy to achieve her or his marketing goals. So they're really the types, the two sort of Persona clients we

work with.

Ryan Jenkins:

In terms of industry, we're pretty agnostic. We've sort of fallen into a few different sort of industries. Not on purpose. We do a fair bit in

automotive, we do a fair bit in education, we do a fair bit in E commerce and retail.

Tristan Wright:

How do you find automotive at the moment is.

Ryan Jenkins:

That they're so bad at marketing? So it's pretty good. Yeah. Like packing and Mazda is probably our. One of the jewels in our crown.

You know, we've grown their business massively and elevated their brand significantly over the last couple of years. So, you know,

they've been, you know, promoted to one of the top dealers, you know, in the country into, in their category since sort of working with

us.

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Ryan Jenkins:

So, yeah, it's a good, it's. It's good, it's good. And some other smaller branded retailers that we work with are also doing, doing quite

well.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. Awesome, awesome. So I'm going to ask lots of these questions in the, in the, in the podcast. So, yeah, I could ask them all now,

but it's probably better. I just like it being real, really raw kind of thing. So. Yeah, yeah.

Tristan Wright:

And plan is, let's say 20, 20 minutes to 30 minutes. If we go over, we go over. If we go under. That's because I'm not a good interviewer

kind of thing.

Ryan Jenkins:

No worries.

Tristan Wright:

Cool. I'll turn on the. The recording and. Yeah, we'll just take it in one cut. Let's go. And I, I generally do, like. I'll do an introduction at the

start and then about the podcast and I'll introduce you and get you to tell a bit about yourself from the start, so.

Tristan Wright:

Sounds good. Hang on, let me. I'll stop that because I just realised I didn't have the camera set up correctly. So are you still at

Waterman at the moment or. No. All right, let's go. Welcome to the growth equation where we dive into the real challenges and

triumphs of scaling and growing Australian marketing and branding agencies.

Tristan Wright:

We feature candid conversations with founders who are navigating often the messy middle and scaling the business. Today we've got

Ryan Jenkins. Ryan, love to hear a bit more about you.

Ryan Jenkins:

Morning Tristan, how are you today?

Tristan Wright:

Good mate, good. That's good.

Ryan Jenkins:

About me what would you like to know?

Tristan Wright:

Tell us about your business and just give us let's say a two minute synopsis of your journey and where you've been.

Ryan Jenkins:

Sure. So the Hype Society is a brand focused digital marketing and growth agency. We work with mid market brands to help them

scale. So when you talk about scaling agencies I mean we're there to help scale brands that have passed product market fit, that are

under resourced or don't have a strategy to be able to achieve their marketing objectives through things like digital marketing, content

creation, brand strategy and digital marketing execution.

Tristan Wright:

Awesome. And a bit about your journey. We're talking just before we started, that this isn't your first rodeo, so you run a different

business and actually sold it.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah. So this is my second fury or furor. I'm not sure how you say it, but my second agency, and what I learned through my first agency

is that I didn't really want to run what I would call a digital marketing gun for hire. So. So we were very much a commoditized product.

If you wanted SEO, Google Ads, social media ads, you would come to an agency like Digital Eagles and then we would run campaigns

for you. This iteration of what we provide is far more integrated.

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Ryan Jenkins:

It's far more of a partnership. We work with less clients, but we're far more integrated into their business. So when I was sort of talking

to you before, we work with growth focused founders or under resourced marketers. So you've either got a strategy and you need a

team of experts to help you execute on that strategy all in one place, or you're a founder that's growing fast and you've got budget, but

you don't have a team or a strategy to be able to continue to harness the opportunities that you possess. So we want to bolt onto your

business and really help you with expert resources and support to help you continue to maximise the opportunities that you've got in

market.

Tristan Wright:

Awesome. So sort of like an integrated marketing department or.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah. The other competitive edge for us is we have what's called flexible performance retainers. So we're not locking our clients into

line items. We have a retainer. We work on a rolling 90 day project, period. So at the end of that quarter, we would be assessing

performance. What works well, what didn't work well, where are the insights and opportunities to make calculated, you know, bets and

decisions based on facts, reality and insights.

Ryan Jenkins:

And also your plan, you know, to continue to move forward into the next quarter. So then we would be reviewing that each quarter to

make sure that you're investing in the areas that are only driving value for your business.

Tristan Wright:

Love it. It's something I teach or something similar. Like you end up creating an annual strategy, but it gets refined and reviewed on a

quarterly basis and you can scale up and down, basically picking items off a menu that are needed at the time. Yeah. So tell me, in

your journeys of growing both businesses, what would you say is like, let's say, the biggest misconception you had or people have

around scaling a business?

Ryan Jenkins:

That it's easy. And, you know, when you sit back and you look at someone's website or LinkedIn profile or, you know, accolades or

rewards or recognition or people within, you know, the marketing space that are interviewed and being recognised, that, you know,

there's. You're only seeing the top of the pyramid and, you know, we've all seen where you've got the iceberg at the top and then you've

got all the shit underneath the water that you don't see. That's one of the most factually correct things I reckon I've sort of seen.

Everyone's an overnight success and it's 10 years to get there. Yeah, that's right. And this is my 10th year in the marketing agency

game, so.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah, it's. And the marketing game changes so rapidly, and you look at what AI is doing and how fragmented the space is, it's getting

probably more challenging than ever to show genuine connection and having your customers really appreciate sort of what you do,

because there's so much noise out there and there's so many.

Tristan Wright:

Let's say untrained experts that niche into a certain area like email, email copywriting, and they only look at one platform and they don't

necessarily look at the whole marketing, like every single angle of the business they like. Yep, we can solve all of your issues with one.

One offer, so. And it ends up getting the entire space about. No.

Ryan Jenkins:

We did a survey before starting to really make sure that what our conception for the business was was actually correct. So we

interviewed over 50 founders and marketers to understand what they're looking for. And what they are looking for is one place, one

person. Not necessarily. They don't care if they're your staff. But, you know, this is my team, this is, this is who I work with. And I just

want to deal with one agency that can help us achieve what we're trying to achieve.

Ryan Jenkins:

Rather than have an email marketing specialist, an SEO specialist, a Google Ads specialist, a social media specialist, a designer, like

that becomes a nightmare for marketers and business owners because that's where it went. It went from all in one agency to then

these specialised companies doing their specialisation. And now it's sort of coming back to, you know, it's so complicated, it's so

fragmented. I don't have the information, I don't want to learn everything. I just want to trust, you know, one partner to be able to help

me.

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Tristan Wright:

One trust the partner that manages all the experts. Yeah, yeah. As you've been growing your business, talk to me about a significant

decision that you've had to make that's. That's really significantly shaped the direction of your business.

Ryan Jenkins:

I make significant decisions. Feels like every week, I think. As a marketing agency, you feel the market before the market recognises

what's happening in market. So when consumer confidence starts to fall away and interest rates start to rise, we all know in the

marketing land that marketing and training and some other variable costs are one of the first things to be cut. So we feel that almost

instantly if market confidence diminishes. So I've learned that every single time that I've needed to cut costs, I need to probably look at

cutting them faster than I do, because I'm a very optimistic person. We can just sell more, we can upgrade, we can bring in more

clients and we can replace any lost revenue or risk revenue with new ones.

Ryan Jenkins:

But then we've got to. For me, I've got to look at the facts and the reality of particular situations to help me and my business partner

drive decisions to ensure that we can protect the business for the future and not gamble on the fact that we can increase our sales

targets and just do more marketing and bring in more clients. We've got to have a decision making matrix, which we do now have,

which if we do need to cut costs and reduce them, we need to do that a little bit faster than potentially what I'd like to. So that's

probably the one core thing that I reckon I've had to learn four or five times in my career.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. And the last thing we want to do is cut costs and reduce our headcount. Because we wanted to look after our staff and our team

as well, we often put them first. So we need to take emotion out of it and actually look at. The reality. So there's some things that are in

our control and some things that aren't. Yeah.

Ryan Jenkins:

And probably the other major decision that we've. We've made recently is we've got a fully customised, all in one agency management

platform now that's been built, and that's really helping, you know, systemize and help us with automating processes, making sure that

we've got documentation around our processes and that we've got one system that's the engine room for the business. We're not

piecemealing things anymore. We've done a lot of work to get the back end of this business up and running and moving at a much

more streamlined rate than we did maybe a year ago.

Tristan Wright:

That sort of thing allows you to step out of the business at times and trust that it will still operate without.

Ryan Jenkins:

I wish that was true. But in the future. Yeah, in the future. I talk about when I do mentor people and I'm working with other business

owners or agency founders, that it's about just climbing up one rung at a time. Right? So if I'm in sales, I'm in strategy, I'm managing

our client service team, and I'm also managing our digital delivery team. Then I talk about what is the one place within the business

that I can develop processes and systems for so I can step at least one run up in the next X amount of time.

Ryan Jenkins:

Because, you know, systemizing and processizing, you know, all four areas of a business all at once is, you know, a mama task. And I

know that it's not going to happen straight away, but it's about making one of those business units and, you know, coaching and

supporting my team to be able to help me create those process and systems so I can go and help another area, you know, do better.

So that's sort of how I think about it. It's like rungs on a ladder. And I know when I'm at the top, like I was probably at Digital Eagles and

looking down on the business, running the business as a proper founder and CEO, that was where I really want to be able to be again in

the next year or two. And that's the journey I'm on now.

Tristan Wright:

Do you have a framework that you use for all of this? Like we.

Ryan Jenkins:

Do have a framework. So within our client service or what we would call performance marketing division, you know, we have

communication processes. We have daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly tasks. We have, you know, reporting frameworks. So we have,

you know, what happens daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly. We have relationship tasks or engagement tasks. You know, again what

happens daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly.

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Ryan Jenkins:

So we do break every one of those segments into different processes within different business units. And then obviously SEO has their

own processes. Google Ads have their own set of processes. But you know, I'd be lying if I had a beautiful manual that was all

automated and fully documented. No, but that's sort of where we're trying to go with this platform that we're using to do.

Tristan Wright:

So what's the platform?

Ryan Jenkins:

Do you want to it's called Accelo.

Tristan Wright:

Yep, yep. I'm fully aware of Accelo, so. Really good. Yeah, that's one of the, like, marketing agencies. It's one of the probably top two or

three that the businesses will use. So Accelo, Scoro and ClickUp, probably the top three. So, yeah.

Tristan Wright:

How do you find. So having these systems and processes in place. What's the adherence from your team and staff to actually

following them? So, like specifically around time tracking, let's say.

Ryan Jenkins:

So time tracking and task management is probably the reason that we decided Accelo was going to be the one. We have retainers.

Within those retainers, we then have tasks and the retainers are created at a business unit level. So for instance, SEO has their own

retainer. That retainer will have a budget. So let's call it 2000. So then my SEO specialist will know that month they have a budget of

2,000 to spend.

Ryan Jenkins:

They would then go and break their retainer into those tasks and then they would set the due date on those tasks to then be

completed. When they open the task, the time tracking system would automatically start the timer. When they finish that task, it will

close the task and also then take that time away from the internal retainer. So. So I haven't seen any other platform or system that

works that well from an integrated retainer management, task management and time tracking perspective. So that I'm really, really

happy with. We get complete transparency on hours, tasks and allocations of those retainers.

Tristan Wright:

Has there been a pushback at all from the staff to track at that level?

Ryan Jenkins:

Not at all. I think now that. Okay, I'll go backwards. When you're putting in processes and systems, time tracking and task management

years in to an agency you're going to get backlash. We had these systems and processes from day one so every time someone joined

the business that's just the way we do things around here. So we were using Xana and Harvest for instance so you know everything

from the day that we opened up the business was trapped against the task that time was trapped against the task and then that was

taken out of a retainer that was all done sort of manually through retainer spreadsheets and whatnot. But there's no pushback at all.

Ryan Jenkins:

Like they just accept that's the way we do business.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah and for me it's, it's not necessarily about tracking the staff members hours in terms of keeping them accountable. It's to ensure

that the business is profitable and of course that there is no revenue or work done out of scope.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah and like no one, I don't think anybody thinks that whether to micromanage them. We do really encourage our team to be.

Proactive and self starting and to be responsible for the strategy. So, you know, we would work with them and collaborate on, you

know, this is your retainer allocation for this month. Do you think that's enough? Is it too much? What have you got planned?

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Ryan Jenkins:

Show me through the work that you've done and how that you know, what you've got planned for the future. And then that allows us to

go and pitch to the client to increase their performance retainer, or we can redistribute, you know, any of those, what we would

forecast be underutilised for that month for whatever reason. So once they then have that budget, they then know that that's my fixed

retainer, that's what I have to work with. And then it's their job to then work backwards from that. Based on what? What are the KPIs

and objectives that are set with the client?

Tristan Wright:

Awesome. From your perspective, I imagine that you're wanting to grow the. You're in a phase where you're wanting to grow the

revenue at the moment, but at the same time you're wanting to maintain this operational efficiency. So how do you bounce between

the two when you're putting all of this energy into setting up these systems and needing to grow revenue?

Ryan Jenkins:

It's a good question. I am. I don't have a business development team at all. So business development is me, and sales is what I've

done for, you know, 20 years. So I'm very comfortable in that space. So really, I just know I have a finite amount of time. We have, you

know, growth targets, which I know that I have to achieve.

Ryan Jenkins:

I have marketing levers, you know, that I pull. But most of our clients, fortunately come through word of mouth, you know, repeat

business, you know, ex clients that I've worked with that have, you know, gone into different companies that bring us on board. So I

know there's a reasonably consistent inbound flow of opportunities, and I'm more than comfortable on the sales side to be able to

convert those opportunities. That's. That's probably 25% of my week. Then the maybe 30% would be in client strategy and

performance marketing strategy, like what I would call my account directorship role, where I'm actually sitting down reviewing

accounts at a top level, making sure that they're performing. And then the rest of my time would be negotiated through operational

systems and processes, business management, you know, webinars, podcasts, you know, other things that I do to build the brand of

the, of the business.

Ryan Jenkins:

So. And then would also be. Maybe 10 to 15% of my time working on operational management directly with our delivery team.

Tristan Wright:

Awesome. Now, we haven't spoken. Head count. What's your. What's your head count? Roughly? About.

Ryan Jenkins:

It's about 20.

Tristan Wright:

Yep. Is that full time equivalent or.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah, sort of fluctuates anywhere from sort of 16 to 22. Yeah. What? Yeah, full time equivalent, sort of 18 to 20, I would say.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah, that's, that's right in the, the number that I. So I say 16 to 21 is the really risky number headcount wise where your, where your

opex grows a lot, but your profit level, your profit doesn't because your revenue hasn't caught up with it yet. Is that, is that a rate what

you're finding at the moment?

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah. So if I go back to what I know, I've got to get through this death chasm as fast as possible.

Tristan Wright:

It's the value of death is 1621.

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Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah. And we've been here for too long, so I know why. And we're sort of rapidly trying to fix that. So our churn is too high. So. And our

sales, the way we've selected clients has probably been due to necessity to grow the business. So what I would have liked to done is

been a fair bit more selective over the last couple of years with the clients that we're working with and then also done a bit more work

around the processes and systems to retain and grow clients and maybe bring them in at less aggressive retainers.

Ryan Jenkins:

Because what I try and do is get enough money to deliver enough service to deliver enough communication to deliver enough results

to drive the client forward. But if it's a quite balance between over capitalization of investment and enough money to grow. So that's

probably been a bit of a dance over the last year and a half or so to make sure that we've got the right clients with the right brand with

the right expectation giving us enough time because if we have enough time we can grow almost any business. So it just comes down

to their, you know, their investment level and what I would call their investment anxiety because my job is to essentially remove that

anxiety from the investment get them into growth mode, get some runs on the board so this can this anxiety falls away and we're

collaborating, you know we're working together on driving the business forward when it's in the other sort of anxiety space like it's

looking under every single rock. They're looking for issues, they're looking for problems. They're not in that sort of, you know,

abundance mindset I would call it. Yeah.

Tristan Wright:

So if you had your time again once you got to head kind of 15. How would you change the way you've attacked your growth?

Ryan Jenkins:

I would have done the work with the CRM earlier. I would have built the processes and the systems earlier. I would have, I would have

said no to more clients than I said yes to to build, you know, sustainable profit. And like we've had lumpy profit. Like last year was like

a tough year. Like we're, we took a loss last year but then this year has been fantastic so now we're back into this sort of grow again

mode and you know our game, our game is to you know get the 200k recurring revenue, you know before the end of this financial year

that then I'm out of that, that, that chasm and we can go to 25 to 50 which is the, you know the part I really enjoyed last time I've done

this.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah, awesome. How about you using AI in your business on a daily basis in terms of actually work delivery.

Ryan Jenkins:

A lot of ChatGPT is probably the one thing that we do. We're using a lot of the design AI softwares as well. In our creative team, we're

doing a bit with some AI editing software for videos. We've experimented with paying. Say again?

Tristan Wright:

The video editing. Which tool?

Ryan Jenkins:

I can't remember. I'm not close enough to that side of the business, but I know they definitely are. Yeah, but yeah, I think that. Still not

enough. Like, we're still not using it, like, enough. And that's not, that hasn't been substantiated. Just, I know how much is out there.

Ryan Jenkins:

And, like, we try and be at the forefront in all departments to make sure that we are trying to streamline and systemize, but also get

efficiency gains using AI. But I just. Yeah. This kind of nagging thing is just, it's not enough. I've got to be looking at more technological

advancements.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. My argument is, if you're not building it into your workflow now, you're. You're going to be losing money really quickly. Yeah. One

of my clients, we, she's more very much in the content space, and we've been able to. Reduced the man hours, we'll call them man

hours by 70% and that what that's led to is a faster turnaround time and a greater, greater quality of output and she hasn't laid off her

staff, she's that's just increased her capacity. So amazing.

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Tristan Wright:

So and that's, that's just by, by not just chat GPT but having multi agent systems talking to one another and so, and that's just in one,

one workflow for her business. So my, my argument is if you're not doing it you're going to be behind in the next 12 and 18 months.

Yeah, yeah I feel that. Yeah, yeah. So like that's probably you're, you're putting in place, you're in a cello at the moment. Like that's got

to be built into a cello those processes. Yeah.

Tristan Wright:

So, so what, what do you reckon is your next biggest hurdle that you've got coming up in the, in the business in the next six months?

Ryan Jenkins:

Talent acquisition, I would say. So now that we know that we're coming into another growth phase, it's about making sure that we

retain our top talent and then making sure that we bring on, you know, the. The talent that is going to propel the business, you know,

into where we want it to go. We've toyed with international expansion a couple of times and we still want to do that. Like, we think that

we can, you know, replicate what we're doing in this market, in other markets, but that's probably after six months. We really do want to

embed our operating model and get some consistent, you know, growth performance before looking at that, you know, maybe the

following financial year. But yeah, talent acquisition, I think, would be talent retainment and talent acquisition would be our biggest

challenge.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah, and that's. That's been, I think, a big thing for a lot of agencies, marketing, marketing space businesses over the last 12 months

as well, because staff are also not afraid to ask for a higher salary and move around a bit more at the moment, too.

Ryan Jenkins:

This is going to sound controversial. I think younger people aren't like younger people. When I was younger, like, we've got a. We've got

a market of, you know, hand out versus hand up. A lot of the times it's like, you know, pay me more money or give me this thing and I'll

do the. Sort of used to having to work for the thing, you know, I'll, I'll do that. Give me more opportunity.

Ryan Jenkins:

I can do that. Give me a chance and I can prove to you that like, I feel like there's a little bit, there's a lot less of that and it's, they know

that we're in a, you know, clear a market where agencies will, will, you know, pay overs for certain talent to capitalise on an opportunity.

So the, the, the market, I suppose, yeah, has a bit more power than, than it probably used to when I was, when I was younger. I do feel

like it's coming back though, towards us as the business owners, you know, going back into that sort of equal, you know, value transfer

dance, I would call it. So. Yeah, but that's, that's just the challenge. It will be forever.

Tristan Wright:

I think it's. And I don't know if it's just because we're getting older or we're progressing through and we, I'm sure, I'm sure people 10, 15,

20 years older than us are feeling the same thing. It's just so who knows? Mindset and personal well being. How do you. Have you

found you've needed to manage that and are you managing that?

Ryan Jenkins:

Am I managing that? I'm not doing as well with that as I would like to. So there have been times where I've been very, very focused

around my health and wellbeing. The last 12 months has been a bit more challenging just because the business has been more

challenging. So it's expected more from me, so hours, but also my capacity. And it's interesting because when things. When you have

challenges, you feel a lot more alone than when you're working in a business for a company.

Ryan Jenkins:

When you are the company, there's no one that's sitting above you and being there to help you feel secure. You're just making

decisions based on your experience, the knowledge, your intuition that you think are going to work. And that's a lot of pressure to wear

as a burden to have. And when we talk about reducing costs and having to let people go or consolidating or, you know, that that also is

something that, although I'm much more comfortable now, I still. I still hate it. I still don't like having to, you know, have those

conversations and then negotiate with suppliers and, you know, all this. The crappy parts of business become crappier when, you

know, financially the market's tougher.

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Ryan Jenkins:

So that's probably been a bit of a challenge for me to be able to. Yeah. Manage my. Yeah, yeah. I still, you know, I still go to the gym,

you know, multiple times a week. I eat reasonably healthy, but, like, not to the. I'm nowhere near on that side of my life where I'd like to

be from a fitness and well being perspective, as.

Ryan Jenkins:

Because I've been a lot better than this.

Tristan Wright:

One thing I noticed is, like, I go through all those sorts of things as well, but for me personally, the more I manage my health, the more I

put into myself, even in those tough times, the better I perform at work. Business decision making.

Ryan Jenkins:

Yeah. And it's funny because, like, I actually know that it's. It's actually just putting. Having the discipline to put it into practise and be

accountable to yourself. You know, I still there's still daily disciplines I have around, you know, audio books and my podcast, you know,

stuff that I do, you know, every day I'm learning. But it's probably the it's probably the fitness and, and, like, the diet, and just getting

that back to where I want it to be is probably my next sort of goal that. I know I already have that, and that's underway.

Ryan Jenkins:

But, yeah, that's where I'm. I know I need to do better.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. So out of everything you've discussed today, if you were to give one piece of advice to owners growing their business that are in

this sort of messy phase, what would that one piece of advice be for.

Ryan Jenkins:

That's so difficult because every agency owner and every agency is going to have different challenges.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah, yeah.

Ryan Jenkins:

Probably goes back to the two things that I think I probably should have done better. Systemize faster. Get a good platform, making

sure that you take as like, don't be the bottleneck around as many things as you can. So when you don't have documented process and

systems, a lot of those things then fall back onto you to solve. And when those tasks or things continue to increase, the time to

respond to everyone also gets delayed. So you often find that you're the one that's holding the business back from growing.

Tristan Wright:

That's it. So get out of your own way. Yeah. Ryan, thank you very much for your time today. If people want to contact you, what's the

best way to get in touch.

Ryan Jenkins:

LinkedIn so you can have a look at my profile on LinkedIn? I'm always posting on LinkedIn. I love to add value to people through

LinkedIn or just the website thehypesociety. Com.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah, awesome. Thanks, mate.

Ryan Jenkins:

No worries. Thanks, Tristan.

Tristan Wright:

Done. That was good. Thank you very much for that. So it's, that's the sort of stuff that like so many people, it's things people know but

if they, if they see others going through it, like it just makes it easier for them to, to assimilate kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, man.

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Ryan Jenkins:

And everyone thinks everyone's killing it and. Like, you. Know, some people are and some people aren't but it's, it's a. Process, you

know, so that's it.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. So yeah, greatly appreciated. So as we, as I record it, I'll share with. Sorry, as it said is it. I'll share it with you while publishing it,

blah, blah, blah, all that sort of stuff. So. And if there's anything I can do to help you, you've given me some of your time.

Tristan Wright:

Just let me know if there's anything that you. That I can do for you as well.

Ryan Jenkins:

Well, probably on the AI side of things, mate. Like maybe we can just grab a coffee or you can, I can talk you through, you know, how

we're doing things and if there's some low hanging fruit that. Yeah. That you can share, that would be. That would be great.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah, awesome, man. More than happy to share like I can. So in my own business I've. I'm at the point where I can write a 2000 word

article and all my social posts for a week fully edited in under two hours. So like, so that sort of thing can be scaled out to clients. Like

you just need to have all the different agents set up correctly. So.

Tristan Wright:

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. More than happy to share it with you this side of Christmas in person for coffee will be tough. Other side of

Christmas definitely for coffee. So more than happy to do a video called this Item. We can catch up in January in person as well.

Ryan Jenkins:

Okay, cool. Should I just book your calendar or.

Tristan Wright:

I'll give you a different link because that's. Which one. Let me look. We just. I'm just. Just grabbing it. So make sure I've got the correct

one for you.

Tristan Wright:

So I've just. I've just put it in the chat. So now it says I've got time tomorrow at 2:00 for some reason, but I don't. So any time except for

that 2 and 2:30 tomorrow is okay. All right. Awesome, man. You have a good one.

Ryan Jenkins:

You too, mate. Thank you.