Ep 172: The Doer's Trap

So there's a trap that I see agency owners fall into constantly, and the frustrating part is that in the beginning, this doesn't feel like a trap.

It actually looks like being a good founder.

Now, this might be like a client has a problem, and so you jump in and you solve it, or someone on the team needs help, and so of course, you're going to give them the answer.

Maybe a proposal needs to go out, and if you don't do it, then it's going to take a while, so obviously you're going to do it.

Maybe a client isn't happy, and so you hop on the call.

Now, something important needs to get done, and because you've probably always been the most experienced person in the agency, the fastest way to get it done is usually just for you to go and do it.

And don't get me wrong, in the short term, that works, and often it's completely necessary.

You solve the problem, the client is happy, the work moves forward, the business keeps running.

But every time that happens, you actually reinforce something inside the agency, and that is that you are the safest path to getting things done.

And if that continues for long enough, you eventually build an agency that can employ ten people, twenty people, maybe even more, but you're still operating like a freelancer who just has assistants.

And this is what I call the doer's trap.

And in this video, I want to explain exactly what the doer's trap is, why it becomes one of the biggest constraints on any agency, and how to tell if you're currently in the doer's trap.

So first off, what is the doer's trap? Well, the doer's trap is what happens when the founder remains too involved in producing the outcomes of the agency.

I'm not talking about just overseeing them or setting the standards or making the occasional high-level decision, actually producing the outcomes.

That might mean that you're still writing strategy, reviewing every deliverable, joint- joining client calls, building proposals.

It might mean checking campaigns.

I mean, the team asks a lot of questions, so being there to answer all of their questions, managing projects, following up on tasks, just putting out all of the many fires that always pop up when we run an agency, or making decisions that someone else should be able to make, or maybe even just simply being the person that everyone turns to when something gets difficult.

And there is an important distinction here.

Being involved in your agency doesn't mean that you're in the doer's trap because you, you should be involved.

After all, it's your agency.

You built it.

Nobody knows it better than you do.

But the question is, does the agency need your involvement in order for normal work to move forward? That is the difference.

So if you choose to join an important strategy call, that's one thing.

If the account will completely fall apart unless you join that strategy call, that is something else entirely, and that is exactly what I'm talking about.