“This place is nuts. I’m outta here.”

That was the note from a freelancer at an agency I worked at a while back. We’d brought him in for a few weeks.

He lasted a few days.

The note stung. Because he was right.

We’d gotten used to the crazy because that’s what we do in this business. But man, it was refreshing to hear those unsullied words.

I’m not sure we ever fully fixed the crazy. But we did make the freelance onboarding process a bit less insane. And I don’t remember anyone else running away screaming after that.

So, a win overall.

Tom Vander Well has been hearing this kind of truth for more than 30 years.

He’s the guy listening when the recording says, “This call may be monitored.” That’s also the title of his book, btw. After more than 100,000 customer calls, he’s seen what happens when the story leaders tell themselves smashes into what employees and customers are actually experiencing.

Sometimes they use that truth to learn and get better.

Sometimes they threaten to fire anyone who shares even one pixel from the damning report.

Messed up, right? That’s the tension we dig into during this episode: most leaders say they want the truth. But what if the truth makes you look bad?

Tom and I talk about why the real story is usually the best story, how hiding from it hurts both your culture and your brand—and what it takes to create an organization capable of hearing what it needs to hear.

Yeah, the truth can sting.

But the b******t version is almost always more expensive.

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work less chaotic, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Tom on LinkedIn and learn more about his book and his speaking work at tomvanderwell.com.

If you’d like to make your agency 20% less crazy, let’s talk. Schedule a free half-hour Demuckify Session and we’ll identify one thing that will move the needle right now.

Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt.

Question to you from Tom:What company comes to mind when you think of a great customer experience?

Years ago, I worked at Hill Holliday in NYC. Not the most glamorous work, but the people were fantastic.

At some point, our team grew to include folks from an agency in Greenville, SC called Erwin Penland (EP). As typical NYC-ers, we didn’t know anything about them. Or Greenville for that matter. Was South Carolina the good Carolina?

Over time, those SC-ers simply became part of the team.

We had this amazing trip down to Greenville to bond with them and get a taste of the city. It’s honestly one of my favorite places in the US to this day. I can still taste the (spiked) sweet tea.

EP has grown a lot since those days. And Greenville has cultivated quite the ad community. Josh Lane is a big part of that. He cut his teeth at EP and went on to co-found FerebeeLane in 2005.

It sure looks like they’ve built a similar culture —with great people at the core.

Culture is easy when it doesn’t cost anything.

The hard part comes when the a-hole is incredibly talented. Or the client making your team miserable is incredibly profitable.

So Josh and his partner Matt built an agency where protecting the people is built into the operation.

They carry no debt. They maintain a solid reserve. And that gives them the freedom to walk away from business that threatens the health of the team.

Like when a difficult client began wearing down one of their most experienced—and normally super chipper—account leaders. Josh and Matt confronted the behavior directly, knowing they could afford to lose the account.

The client changed. But the conversation only happened because they could afford to have it.

In agency-land, that kind of behavior is rare. But I’m starting to wonder if it’s less so in Greenville.

You can follow Josh on LinkedIn and learn more about his agency at ferebeelane.com

If you’d like to make your agency 20% less crazy, let’s talk. Schedule a free half-hour Demuckify Session and we’ll identify one thing that will move the needle right now.

Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt.

Bye, everyone!

You know how almost every agency feels under-resourced?

What if that’s a you problem? Yeah, you. The one leading the work. Are you dumping your under-resourced nervous system on your team?

Look around. How is everyone? Is that normal agency “buzz” or is that abject terror? Be honest.

You’re running on fumes and poisoning your team in the process. Everyone’s in reactive mode. And you’re wondering why the work is meh instead of marvelous.

Wanna fix it? Find a mirror, fast. It’s time to do some self-reflection and figure out why you’re so frazzled.

Mandy Balak boils this down to a few words: we’re chasing instead of choosing. Chasing recognition, accomplishment, perfection—anything that will finally let us know we’re enough.

You’re already enough. And Mandy’s new book, “Chasing Enough” can you help you actually believe it. Because she went through it, in a big way, and came out the other side healthier and more useful as a leader.

Our constant need to chase is a capacity crisis. When our personal resources exceed our demands, we’re creative, generous. When our demands exceed our resources, we chase, scramble and go on a 7-hour Slack spree. Suddenly, the whole team has our capacity problem.

We can do better.

In this episode, Mandy and I talk about how you can reclaim your nervous system and why setting limits isn’t the same as settling.

That feels like enough for one episode.

Welcome to the DesuckifyWork® podcast. The show where we cut through the BS and find ways to make work less chaotic, more human and less ridiculous. All of which makes your business more profitable, by the way.

(If you enjoy this one, please like, share, rate, review or subscribe to the podcast.)

Let the desuckifying begin.

You can follow Mandy on LinkedIn and learn more about her work and her book at mandybalak.com. If you’re up for a quick trip to Canada, you can join her at The Gathering brand festival in Banff, running now through the 24th.

If you’d like to make your agency 20% less crazy, let’s talk. Schedule a free half-hour Demuckify Session and we’ll identify one thing that will move the needle right now.

Type “meow” in the calendar invite and I’ll also send you a free DesuckifyWork® t-shirt.

Bye, everyone!

Bonus question from Mandy:If there were no applause, would you still do it?