Your agency doesn't have a sales problem. It has a people problem. I spent 15+ years building teams, from scrappy startups, to scaling tech companies, to huge agencies like GroupM and WPP. Now, I give small agency owners the SOPs, frameworks, and hard truths they need to build high-performance cultures that run without them.
The TL;DR, Balancing Selfishness with Selfishness
September 17 - September 30
The Two Sides Of Your Why
Everyone has a deep down selfish reason why they do anything. Write enough in your journal and you'll find your selfish side. If you're like any human that's ever lived, that could be a desire to seek status, to have control, to be seen, etc. It's ok: we're all a little selfish.
People in leadership roles have a special responsibility: they have to peer into the mission/values of their organization and articulate the organization's wants and needs. Leaders interpret how everyone (or the C-suite) has defined an organization's purpose and then bring that why to life.
If you were a leader at one of these organizations, here would be your guiding values:
- Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer, and Earth’s safest place to work.
- Exxon Mobil Corporation is committed to being the world's premier petroleum and chemical manufacturing company. To that end, we must continuously achieve superior financial and operating results while adhering to high ethical standards.
- Gravity Payments: Leveling the playing field for community businesses of all sizes. Our mission is to change the way business is done by putting purpose and people above profit.
Every business needs something like a mission/values statement to help leaders decide how to lead. Decisions would look vastly different at those organizations based on their mission and values.
Here's the kicker:
Entrepreneurs need to be doubly selfish.
Starting and growing a business is a selfish decision (if you believe that entrepreneurs are human like the rest of us). An entrepreneur has decided, for some deep-down reason, that their career will feed their selfish desires: status, power, desire, etc.. Even if Entrepreneur Eddie says they're starting a business to better the world, there's a subconscious something that's demanding that the world should look and behave a little more like Entrepreneur Eddie's vision.
At some point, though, Entrepreneur Eddie has an organization to look after. Leaders have to represent the organization, advocate for what the organization needs, and speak on behalf of everyone. Entrepreneurs, wearing their leader hat, have to make tough calls based on what their people, shareholders, board of directors, and customers desire.
Entrepreneurs have to know where the line is between "I'm being selfish for me" and "I have to do what's best for the business."
That's hella hard.
This is probably partly why 63% of entrepreneurs suffer from burnout.
How to effectively straddle that line is beyond the scope of a mere email, but simply identifying that a line exists is a major achievement. Even if you haven't started a business or lead a team, growing your own emotional awareness of competing purposes is always a good thing to think about with your next glass of wine. It shows up in other arenas:
- Language: Code-switching
- Work/Life: Segmenters and Integrators
- Self-image: Body Dysmorphia Disorder
What competing purposes are you balancing today? What competing purposes are you balancing during this chapter of your life?
A TL;DR from the CRO
An eternal balance: dope fashion and being a dope.
-Roman Noodles, Chief Ruff Officer
TL;DRs From Around the Internetverse
- You're staying up late because of "revenge bedtime procrastination" ADDitude
- Toxic workplace behavior is the #1 driver of systemic workplace burnout McKinsey & Company
- Collect all five, live a great life (according to 5 million surveys) Gallup
- DEI backlash can be mitigated by better positioning HBR
- Ten steps to map any industry Steve Blank
Rock Tumbling Results: 5/10
As part of my endeavors to have a life outside of work, I've been tumbling rocks in my basement for the past four weeks. This was my very first batch of rocks that came bundled with my tumbler and I'd say I'm neither satisfied nor unsatisfied. I wished they were more glossy after the polish stage, but they're certainly smooth and pretty.
My next batch is all the same type of stone: dragon's blood. If you're a woo woo kind of person, then it's the perfect kind of stone for an entrepreneur.
In four to six weeks, I'll have an update on this second attempt.
Great things come from many ok attempts.
Trying to get shiny in the rotary drum of life,
Dan from Learn to Scale
Opt-out from the newsletter | Unsubscribe from all emails | Update your Preferences | www.learntoscale.us, Boston, MA 02119
Dan Newman
Your agency doesn't have a sales problem. It has a people problem. I spent 15+ years building teams, from scrappy startups, to scaling tech companies, to huge agencies like GroupM and WPP. Now, I give small agency owners the SOPs, frameworks, and hard truths they need to build high-performance cultures that run without them.
A bi-weekly roundup of how to fit your business on a single sheet of paper December 27, 2025 - January 9, 2026 Nine Boxes Closer To Nirvana Skip the New Years Resolution, To-Don't List, and Accountabilibuddy Pact. Do a Lean Canvas instead. The Lean Canvas is a one-page business modeling worksheet that should take about 15 minutes for you to fill out if you know your business model and a couple years if you don't. Think of it less like a business plan and more like an annual physical for your...
A bi-weekly roundup of everything TL;DR from the past year December 13 - December 26 A Brief Year In Review Don't forget to enter my end-of-year holiday Cliftonstrengths & 1-1 Giveaway! Contest ends on Monday the 29th. Enter now! The end of the year always puts me into a reflective mood, and out of all my content channels, this newsletter has always been the place I feel most present. The ritual of waking up early on a Friday, putting on vibe-y instrumental music, and setting the lights to...
A bi-weekly roundup of ways to make EOY reviews a little less awkward November 29 - December 12 What Wrapping Paper Do You Use For Tough Love? It’s December 12th. You can practically smell the holiday break. But there is one thing standing between you and that final "Out of Office" auto-reply: The End-of-Year Review. If you are like most small agency owners I know, you are probably trying to find a way to wiggle out of it. You might be telling yourself: "We’re a small team, we talk every day....