The Brief Creative 004: Do More With Less

Who's taking notes?

Guess who's a Fathom affiliate now... It's me, hi!

I'm a huge notebook guy. I literally have 8 on my desk as I type this and about 40 more on the bookshelf behind me. They're full of notes, thoughts, and random drawings (fun fact: the framework below started as a random drawing). But whenever I take notes, inevitably one of two things happens:

I take really detailed notes and lose track of the meeting
I take really quick notes and have no idea what they mean after

So about 3 months ago I set out to find a solution. It's Fathom. It's better than the native tools and my favorite of the other AI options on the market.

The notetaker joins your calls, takes notes, and within 30 seconds of wrapping you have your video, takeaway, next steps, and so much more. I've actually started editing these videos (with permission, of course) for content and that's been a great way to branch into video. Use the affiliate link below and you'll get 3 months of premium for free.

The Spark

This is stuff I'm enjoying out in the world (it's probably not B2B).

I designed a hat last week, it arrived earlier this week, and it's so silly but I'm soooo happy about it!

It's not just that there's now a physical version of an idea that I can wear on my head (although that is pretty cool), it's what it's unlocked for me. I realized recently that many in the industry consider me an "ops guy." There's nothing wrong with that but in my head I've always been a "Creative."

At a certain point in my career I realized that to be the best Creative I could be I needed better systems so I started focusing on ops—I compare this to rappers who became producers because they wanted better beats. But at some point I guess I did stop creating... So now between this newsletter, the podcast (spoiler alert!), and now the hat, I'm back in my Creative era and it's sparking a lot!

Quick aside: Would anyone want a hat?

The Deep Thoughts

This is what I'm thinking about.

The question I get more than any other question is "how do I do more?" In this market and with all the competition that's emerged over the last few years, I get it but it's the wrong question. The question people should be asking is "how do I create more space?"

What is space?

Simply put, space is the time and ability to dig into one thing really well. Another name for it is focus. With so much happening on a daily basis (meetings, check-ins, torpedo projects), it's hard to sit down and do one thing well—there's just too much context switching. But a few years ago I realized why this happened and its a lack of intention. Not being intentional in your decision making forces you to be reactive rather than proactive and that is probably the biggest blocker when it comes to creating space. So what did "the ops guy" do? I created a framework.

The Scaling Creative Framework

This is B2B so of course it's a 2x2. I came up with this a few years ago to determine what projects my team would or wouldn't work on (because guess what, they'd have to work on everything before this). The goal was to cut my team's workload by 75% without killing these projects completely. I needed this to happen because even though I had a small army behind me, we still had the same bandwidth constraints a smaller team had.

I don't remember how many versions of this bad boy it took to get here but the two axes I landed on were: 1.) creative complexity and 2.) in-house or outsource.

High Creative Complexity

In-House (In-House Creative Team)

This quadrant is the holy grail! The work is new, it can make an outsized impact on the company, and your team actually wants to do it. This is the safe space that every Marketing, Brand, and Creative Leader should be looking to establish.

If we're being honest, this is the most straightforward of the quadrants. You have the skills internally and you've created the bandwidth so going forward it's where your big campaigns live, where you brand experiences go to the next level, and where your MVPs become full fledged ideas.

Ultimately it's about taking big swings. If you know the outcome of the work you're doing then it's not new and you should have a playbook for it. This should be where you take risks. If you don't, not only will your business not grow but your creatives will leave.

Outsource (Agencies and Production Studios)

This is where skillsets really come into the picture for me. It's work that requires strategic thinking and probably creative direction so you'll want to have people on the job but when it comes down to it, this is work that you don't have the skills for in-house. Maybe it's video production, maybe it's web development, maybe it's an augmented reality experience. It matters less what it is and more than you need help.

The example I always give when talking about this quadrant is a Super Bowl ad. While I've made many expensive and high-production value spots, none have been featured during the big game and it's because of that that I'd want to outsource this work if I was going to make one.

It's not just that whatever agency you hire has done the work before but that they also have the business affairs department, they understand payroll and rights management, they have a good craft services hookup. It's not just filming and editing, there's so much that goes on behind the scenes and you want pros to handle that. That's not to say that you can't bring this in-house in time but it's important to understand your limits.

Low Creative Complexity

NOTE: I hate doing the same thing twice so if the work isn't new and a playbook already exists then what it requires is automation or systemization.

In-House (Self-Service)

Budgets for outsourcing are great but if you were wondering how I actually cut work down, it was right here. Most work that marketing requires is what I call run rate work. It makes an impact on the bottom line so you can't get rid of it but it's low complexity and repeatable. Run rate work is the reason templates exist.

So if it still needs to get done but it's not a good use of creative time, what do you do? Outsource it to the marketing team! I know how this sounds but the reality is these tasks are a distraction for your creatives. They require a ton of context switching and while the revenue is technically there, it's usually incremental at best. You should focus them on bigger bets.

The benefit to the marketers is they get to move so much faster: no intake, no kickoffs, no review rounds. You just get the work done. It's also the perfect proving ground for projects that don't get resources. You can use self-service to build MVPs then take them to the next level after they've proven that they're worth it. Seeing the projects that people laughed at become the next big company priority after being built this way is one of the highlights of my career!

Outsource (Approved Vendors)

So let's start with the difference between Agencies & Production Studios and Approved Vendors. Your agencies and studios are 1.) usually super expensive and 2.) have skills that you don't have in-house. Your approved vendors are usually trusted freelancers or contractors who become an extension of your team. They're trusted because you've onboarded them with your process, brand, and AP team.

There are two kinds of work that live here. The first is work that is 1% too complex for self-service. You still have a playbook, the strategy still works, it's just slightly more custom than what your self-service system allows for (ex. you need a custom section for a web page that you don't already have a module for).

The second type is more tedious in nature (sorry, approved vendor friends). I love paid ads but if you have multiple messages and are creating for multiple platforms that could mean 100+ different versions of an ad (this is a perfect use case for AI in my opinion but I haven't found a truly great solution yet). Sure you can ask a marketer to do this via self-service but that'll take way too long. I'd just rather pay for someone to do this if I have the budget.

What Goes In What Quadrant?

Now that we know what the quadrants are for the question comes back to decision making. More specifically what goes in each quadrant?

The goal here is to be proactive and not reactive so as you're putting the framework in place you need to assess the team's current workload and opportunities.

Be Quantitative

Look at the last six months of projects to understand where you spent the most time, what work made the biggest impact, and what you ended up doing on repeat.

Consolidate that list by stakeholder/client and time. You'll start to see a very clear pattern of projects that should be made into self-service or outsourced. You'll also see the ones you want to hold onto for dear life (that said, it doesn't mean they're not low complexity). Divide the tasks into the appropriate bucket and communicate that proactively.

Be prepared, some stakeholders will hate this. That's where step 2 comes in...

Be Qualitative

Your colleagues aren't going to want to hear that they now have to do their own work or that you're outsourcing something (read the point on habits below). So before you have these conversations you also need to go back in time and think about the "what if" conversations.

"What if" conversations are the ones that happen randomly over Slack or maybe with a coffee/beer. They're usually forward looking and are focused on all the things you'd do if there was more time, more money, and more freedom. You see where I'm going with this? These what ifs are the reason why you're putting this framework into place. If you help your stakeholders understand that they actually win here because there's going to be space for the what ifs, it's game on.

The Pitch

This is what you should be thinking about.

When is it the right time to update your tech stack? The best time was last year. The second best time is now.

The thing no one talks about in regard to rolling out new tech or processes is that the biggest job has nothing to do with procurement, implementation, or even enablement. The biggest job is convincing your teammates to break their old habits and form new ones (aka "this is how we've always done it"). That's why waiting isn't an option because the longer you do something, the harder it is to stop.

So don't wait for that new teammate to start or until you supposedly have more time next quarter—do it today. Start building the right habits, teach those new hires the new way, and create the system you want to work in! Hit me up for help.

The Brief Creative Newsletter

004 - Do More With Less