…but it is not the be all end all.
There is a hidden metric and most people have no idea.
I do a fair bit of consulting.
Often I’ll talk to 2 agency owners doing $175k/month.
Agency 1: Pure chaos. Owner on the verge of burn out. Working 80 hours per week. New employees don’t make anything easier. They are praying for an operation manager who can be their miracle. There are constant fires to put out. They feel trapped in their business. It’s almost a desperate cry for help from a job they can’t quit.
Agency 2: Their systems and processes run so well that they think they’re doing something wrong. Owner is bored. The heavy lifting all gets done easily. A mountain of good people support them in the background. There are almost no fires to put out. They aren’t even sure what to do all day, so they think they’re doing something wrong.
If you measure only MRR…
…these agencies are equal.
But if you understand the hidden metric…
…is energy…
…then these are 2 very different situations.
The bank account metric is the one people pay attention to the most.
Why? Because it’s easy to measure.
It’s the easiest to show off.
Nobody ever got a 2-comma club award for being energy efficient.
The energy scoreboard is hidden in the background.
And dare I say, it’s more important than money. Because you can get more money, but you cannot get more time and energy.
We don’t want to just optimize for money.
We want to optimize our business for impact and money per unit of energy.
Show me a burnt out agency owner and I’ll show you someone bleeding energy.
This is why I get asked about Loom videos more than anything else. Because most sales process require constant energy inputs.
The sales stop as soon as the owner takes the foot of the gas.
But with a video, the energy leverage is nearly infinite.
You can wake up tired with a baby’s ass full of diarrhea, and your video doesn’t take a day off.
I’ve found it’s useful to ask yourself.
“What am I spending all my energy on?”
Random thoughts in Mexico.
May the force be with you.
If you run a digital marketing agency…
…get a copy of my book: https://amzn.to/2XbKcPl