#sparkchamber 120522 — Jeff Meade
What happens behind the scenes plays a big part in determining what happens in the floodlights, and #sparkchamber gets a peek backstage today, welcoming educator Jeff Meade. Jeff serves as an advisor to owners of marketing agencies, helping them grow their business profitably through coaching, positioning, and operational improvement. As part of the agency world for the past two decades, he has scaled a few agencies, served on leadership teams of a few others, and made and learned from a lot of the mistakes he’s seen his clients make. His website offers an array of concise, targeted insights, providing actionable advice on a wide range of subjects: to name but a few, the hidden cost of meetings, key strategy questions an agency owner must answer, cultivating smarter clients, retaining top-performing employees, and vision casting. Jeff guides agency owners, helping them to identify problems within their organizations, and to define what success looks like; to claim their brand’s authority with sweet-spot positioning; and to streamline systems and processes as a first step to scalability. Why does he do it? “I’m inspired by small business owners [more specifically agency owners] who have a dream and work tirelessly to bring that dream to life.”
1.] Where do ideas come from?
A desire and /or need to...
- right a wrong
- change the status quo
- institute change
- communicate a message
- tell a story
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
I like trying to make the difficult simple. There are so many things to worry about when growing a business and so many things that cause anxiety. I take pleasure in stripping away the BS so people aren't confused about the important decisions they need to make.
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
I start my work early in the morning. My day starts at 4:30 am. I do my best thinking and writing before anyone wakes up in my house and before I’ve committed to meet with anyone in a meeting. I like to habit stack [to borrow a term from Atomic Habits]. I usually head to the gym first thing in the morning and then immediately fire up my computer to get in an hour of writing every day. My trick is to tell myself that I'll write for at least 20 minutes. By the time I hit the 20-minute mark, my juices are flowing and I can keep going.
My writing fuels me and helps me think through how to best help my clients. Writing is how I educate people on the nuances of managing their business.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
I time block. So I prioritize which activities are the most important to get done every day. When I have to ship something out the door like an article or a deliverable for a client, I’m done when I achieve the agreed-upon deliverable.