S2 / AL EP 59: Chris Langley – Without A Good Process, Your Business Is Dead

Show Notes

Chris Langley is the Co-Founder of OfficeHounds, a white label social media agency that started in the UK and now located in Iowa. Chris and his team are now starting a new service for addiction treatment centers to help get them promoted much better online. Check out Addiction Recovery Place online!

Get in contact with Chris Langley here –
Web: https://www.officehounds.com/
Web: https://addictionrecoveryplace.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislangleyiowa/

Episode Transcript

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:27:06

Hey everybody! This is a Jesse Gilmore, agency transformation coach and founder of Niche in Control, author of the Agency Owners Guide to Freedom and the creator of Leverage for Growth. I’m the host of the Leverage for Growth podcast, and I know that in order for you to scale your agency successfully, there are multiple shifts that need to happen within your mindset, skillset and leadership style.

00:00:27:08 – 00:00:53:01

I am on a mission to interview marketing and PR agency owners on their journey to six, seven and eight figures and leverage the lessons from their journey to save you time, energy and money to get your agency to the next level. If you find value in these episodes, watch the case, study video to learn more about leverage for growth and how we successfully scale agencies at niche and control back slash assets that is niche in control.

00:00:53:03 – 00:01:27:00

Dot com slash case setting. You are now listening to leverage for growth. Hey everybody, This is Jesse Gilmore, founder of Niche and Control and creator of Leverage for Growth. Welcome to the Agency Leverage edition. Today I am here with Chris Langley, the co-founder of Office Hounds, a white label social media agency established in 2009 that empowers local businesses and addiction treatment centers to dominate their industry online.

00:01:27:02 – 00:01:45:17

Thanks for coming to our show. Chris thanks for inviting me, Jesse. It’s great to be here. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to your audience as well. Really appreciate it. Absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit about the history and background of your agency? Sure. Well, an office house was started back in 2009 after my wife, Maggie, who was from Origin from Iowa, where I was.

00:01:45:17 – 00:02:05:20

We’re both married in England, and she became redundant for the second time and just had enough, basically. And just I think she read a book about virtual assistants and she just got into it. And it started in 2009 with doing social media for for for small businesses in the United Kingdom because Twitter was just coming into the fold and getting the big things.

00:02:05:20 – 00:02:29:16

So she was at the start of that. So she she really got involved with Twitter, got involved with Facebook, could have quite a few new customers. She then worked for a crowdfunding business where she really grew everything there beautifully. And then in 2015 or 2014, we decided to move from London to Iowa. So a little bit of a change for me and my background in social care.

00:02:29:17 – 00:02:51:18

So when we moved here, I just I obviously joined the business and then I learned a great deal about marketing and social media. We then it’s really grew in America. This is when it really expanded and this is where we got our niche around white label because we were asked by an agency who is, funnily enough, based in London and to come up with a package, a really cheap package for small businesses.

00:02:51:18 – 00:03:14:12

So we put this together. We were charging £100 per customer and we were getting ten, 15 customers a week and we just grew and grew grow and it showed that this is a good needs to get down to, to go to. And when that agency, the agency actually finished, they moved to Australia. We then decided to continue with this and then from there we just continued with White Label.

00:03:14:12 – 00:03:43:21

We work with many marketing agencies around the around America. We’ve still got customers we worked with back in the United Kingdom from, gosh, 2014. So we really do pride ourselves on our client retention and we’ve stayed at this level. But what we’re also doing at the moment is doing addiction recovery, because my main background is working. I used to manage drug services in the United Kingdom and I just thought, well, why do we put the skills that I’ve got now from marketing into this nation?

00:03:43:21 – 00:04:08:12

It seems to be working really well and it’s it’s a real need as well. So that’s where we’re at. We work with Marks and Agencies, was working with drug rehab as well, so that is going great. Sarah Yeah, that’s pretty much us awesome and it’s pretty crazy. Obviously when you you’re going for like the lower cost version, being able to bring on 10 to 15 clients at a time, maybe even per week.

00:04:08:13 – 00:04:27:21

Can you talk a little bit about maybe those earlier days when you had to figure out some productized way of doing it? Because there’s a if you’re only charging a 100, there’s got to be some productized way that you’re able to serve those clients. You talk a little bit about that experience. Yes. I mean, that’s that’s where we really learn the process.

00:04:27:23 – 00:04:53:01

That was the number one thing We had to really drill down and make sure that we weren’t making a lot of money. We were making minimal money, but were we get a lot of customers and coaches. So, you know, so high costs cost low. But our original process was just using it. It seems crazy. We hired out a whiteboard with sticky notes we use that initially was like the original way you do nine.

00:04:53:01 – 00:05:13:07

No, I suppose. And it was a really silly method, but it worked beautifully and that’s how we got our process down, because I think without a process we would have been in trouble within a week or two. So it’s just learning that you know, how customers are coming in, how our onboarding as well. The onboarding process takes a great deal of time as well, and that’s something that we didn’t factor in as well.

00:05:13:09 – 00:05:28:03

I think it was a problem with our pricing. We were doing a lot of onboarding. Clients would stay with us for three or four months, then go and then we had to start all over again, I think. So that was the main thing. But what we learned really was our process and that’s kind of how we’re able to do what we do now, the process level.

00:05:28:05 – 00:05:50:12

So yeah, I have a feeling like that’s going to be something that I am going to dive a little bit into with you later because there’s there’s a lot of there’s like two different spectrums of agencies. You got the productized version, which is high volume, and then you have the highly customized version, which is very high ticket and high touch, but you know, very custom and stuff.

00:05:50:12 – 00:06:11:22

So I think I’ll get back to that a little bit later. But can you talk a little bit? And so in 2009 to right now at the time of the recording is 2024, so 15 years or so, can you walk through some of those other milestones? Maybe it was the move from the UK to Iowa or and growing a team or.

00:06:12:03 – 00:06:32:00

Talk a little bit about some of those milestones that you’ve gone through. Yes, I think anyone that moves from a foreign country to a new country, that’s a massive move. And that took me a long time to adjust to as well. Maybe a little bit of homesickness maybe. I mean, we’re we’re living in the middle of nowhere, Iowa now or I used to live in South London.

00:06:32:02 – 00:06:52:01

So that for me was a milestone in my own achievement, you know, blended into the Iowa lifestyle, which I think I do really I really appreciate now. But I think I think another milestone was for our business was finding our niche, finding the white label parts, and finding that was a real that was a pivotal moment for office homes.

00:06:52:01 – 00:07:19:12

I think. And now with on the next thing with the addiction recovery place as well, with finding these extra little things to do. And I think I think it’s working really nicely. So Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about the the niche piece. The either the white labeling piece are going towards addiction treatment centers. What was like, if you can bring yourself back to that time where you decided I’m in an area my focus or focus on a specific group of people.

00:07:19:14 – 00:07:37:05

Can you talk a little bit about what led to Ed and then what you learned from it? Because I know a lot of people that listen to the podcast or follow me on LinkedIn or anything that are focused on niches or specialization. So you talk a little bit about that. Yeah, I mean, I’ll talk about addiction Recovery Place.

00:07:37:05 – 00:07:56:01

I think really that’s a very good example. As I mentioned earlier, Jesse, my main background in the UK, I managed drug services, I worked in social care since I was 17. Really, that’s all I did. And what I’ve realized over here is you’ve got a if you cut it to a niche, it’s got to be a specialty of yours.

00:07:56:01 – 00:08:15:18

You’ve got to have a better passion for it. You’ve got to have a lot of drive freight and you’ve got to also understand what you’re delivering for people. Because when I started looking into this probably maybe six, ten months ago, I started looking into this and I looked and I was looking at what agencies or what services within the drugs field were providing their social media.

00:08:15:20 – 00:08:40:13

And my jaw was on the floor. Just some of the bad examples and what they were posting. And I also saw other agencies try and just try and do some really bad marketing as if to say, I don’t know anything about this sector. I know a great deal about drug treatment, I know a lot about harm reduction and I know a lot about processes, I know about the services, and that’s why I decided to go with this.

00:08:40:13 – 00:09:01:18

And I think if you haven’t got a passion or knowledge for a niche, it’s not your niche. I think you’ve got to have a lot of drive to, to to make sure that you’re delivering for each and every customer and to show your expertise around that area. I couldn’t if I knew nothing about drugs, rehabs, I couldn’t be picking up the phone and talking to these these agencies now without the confidence to be able to deliver.

00:09:01:20 – 00:09:21:00

And I think my my experience is a good sales point for that. I think once people realize in my experience, they understand what I’ve done in the past and why I’m doing this for them, it’s an easy sell. I mean, it’s it’s become much it’s become it’s easier than I thought to me before I found it. It’s quite difficult to pick up the phone and just, just cold call someone.

00:09:21:02 – 00:09:38:00

But now do it easily because I know if I’m offering them something that they need and they want and they should have, I think every every service should have some sort of social elements. I think Google business is a massive one for any of these agencies as well. And that’s where we’re at with what we want to deliver for them.

00:09:38:02 – 00:09:57:07

I would certainly say if you’re if you’re if you’re not passionate about your nature, find a niche that you are passionate about and go for that. And it’s a winner. Yeah. It reminds me about two podcasts before this. We talked about niches and the the comment of you got to give a damn was it was a piece of that.

00:09:57:07 – 00:10:15:19

And then having empathy for the niche allows you to truly understand. Of course. Yeah. I mean that that’s important because the client is going to pick up on that no time. You know, they’re going to catch you out in your knowledge and you don’t have to be anything in this in this game. Just find a niche and go with that and it’s and it will work.

00:10:15:21 – 00:10:49:04

So that’s that’s a lesson I will tell anyone who’s thinking about, you know, going into this first sector. So yeah. Awesome. So have you been in business for about 15 years? And there’s probably a lot of lessons that you’ve learned either through the milestones or through the move or through the niche. If you were to go back and maybe talk to either your younger self or your earlier version of you, or maybe even somebody who’s listening, that might be one or two steps before where you are.

00:10:49:06 – 00:11:17:15

What would be some of those those advice or different things that you would tell them that would save them either time, energy or money? Or would you say, well, can your process work on the whole from the initial stage of contacting customers right through to the sales and then continue it from there? Every stage has to have a process because if it’s a broken chain in that that’s a broken link in that chain, your business is going to fail and it’s going to be more it’s going to be much harder for you to grow.

00:11:17:17 – 00:11:46:12

So find yourself a good CRM. Definitely. Obviously find yourself very good advice such as yourself. Jesse I really would advise anyone to, to, to utilize expertise with, with someone that’s already walked the walk. That’s something that we’ve learned as well and and learn to constantly learn just to keep learning. Don’t think you know it all because you don’t I don’t know 3% of this entire sector and you’ve just got to keep you just got to keep driving yourself to learn.

00:11:46:12 – 00:12:04:08

So definitely processes number one I think I think without without a good process, your business is dead. So. So well. So what? Make sure you work on that, that your number one thing and, you know, pick up the phone and talk to businesses. that’s another way you’ve got to learn, you know, So don’t be scared to pick up the phone.

00:12:04:08 – 00:12:22:04

That’s I found when I moved over here. When I first started doing the course, I was given the phone put down and me all the time people thought I was because I was in London. I found it up Iowa businesses, they thought it was a joke. People couldn’t understand my language, could not in my accent. And I took it personally at first.

00:12:22:04 – 00:12:44:14

But then you just say, well, okay, just, you know, don’t take it too seriously. If some, you know, rejection is part of business, you’ve got to learn. You’ve got to learn the hard way. And once you’ve got over that area, it’s a lot easier that the two takeaways I’d say for any new business or anyone that’s starting out at the moment, yeah, those are huge.

00:12:44:16 – 00:13:10:23

And the process one, I think a lot of people get stuck on where do I start then Other times when they focus on like soapies or whatever, they think that the, the benefit is actually based on building the soap as opposed to what it’s actually trying to do, which is increase capacity. Yes. And I guess if if you don’t mind diving a little bit more into that, let’s just say someone right now doesn’t have any processes.

00:13:10:23 – 00:13:32:01

What would you suggest? Where do they start? How do they get started? Or maybe how did you get started with that? Well, with the process, pen and paper work work out. The most simple thing is get a pen and paper and just go through everything that you need to do within within, you know, from the first time you, you know, you contact a customer, say, Hey, do you want to know about my business?

00:13:32:03 – 00:13:52:06

And then every single stage, just write it down. Just write it down and then that’s that’s the only way I would say that, you know, you’re you’re going to you’re gonna be a success and obviously have a good team. There are many good people out there that can help you build your business. Pretty reasonable rights as well. And I think I think investing in your team is very important.

00:13:52:06 – 00:14:12:09

We’ve got a we got an awesome team of designers. We’ve got a great team of authors. We have our team process in place. So I come in, I sit down and get on with my day. I know most has been done by the team because we’ve kind of trained them as well. I think training team members is vital for any business as well and trust your team members and delegate delegate as well.

00:14:12:09 – 00:14:35:18

That’s another thing I should always remember. If you’ve got a team member, don’t be scared to delegate because without, without, without delegation, you’re not going to grow. You can’t do everything yourself either. So. No, it’s always awesome how process and systems really correlate with delegation and training and how they’re like two sides of the same coin. Yes, definitely.

00:14:35:23 – 00:14:55:20

Definitely. No, we’ve, we’re very proud of the team that we have here, office Hounds and we can always rely on them as well. We’ve got, we’ve got people we’ve been working with since gosh 2015, before we even moved to the you know, moved over here. We’ve still got team members who we’re still working with and they’re very reliable and, you know, they know what we want to deliver to a great job every time.

00:14:55:22 – 00:15:21:00

So yeah, awesome. Well, you’ve had 15 years of being in business. What are you excited about? Maybe in the next 1 to 3 addiction recovery place. The thing I’m honored to build now offer sounds is, you know, that’s wonderful. We have some great partners we would love work without. For me, personally, I want addiction recovery to a place to be, the place for people, for addiction recovery professionals.

00:15:21:02 – 00:15:43:07

We’ve got to we’ve built in a very basic website at the moment. We’re building things that way. We’ve got big plans. We have a having a job support where we could be contacting rehabs that they can advertise their jobs for free. We’re going to be having a podcast as well. I had my first one a few weeks ago, got another one next week, and the main aim of that, my main aim by the end of the year.

00:15:43:07 – 00:16:12:10

Jessie, I want to speak to a rehab center or a service in every state by the end of the year and then build from there. We’re going to be doing online conferences as well. I’m making pretty big connections. Finally, I’m getting into finding out who’s to speak to nationally. So we’ve we’ve got a meeting hopefully this week with a national organization for counselors who help with for addiction treatment professionals.

00:16:12:12 – 00:16:32:07

So we hope we’ve got some big plans. I’m I’m ready. That’s the one thing I’m really I mean, I’m excited about business generally, but I’m very excited about built an addiction recovery place into something. That’s because there’s not a hub anywhere online for this sector. It’s all I don’t know why that is, but I’d like to be a part I’d like to be the I’d like to be a part of it.

00:16:32:07 – 00:16:51:20

So and and it’s something I believe in as well. You know, I, you know, from my past experience in England, I do believe that these services are vital within any community around the world and over here in America is it’s very needed. Definitely. Definitely. So that’s that’s what I’m looking forward to in the next year or two. Definitely.

00:16:51:23 – 00:17:16:04

So. And Chris, one of the coolest things about this conversation, it’s as you’ve gone from the UK to Iowa and you went through a 15 years worth of different milestones with Officer Owens. Yes, he built systems within office hours to be able to delegate to a team. Yes. And have that be able to run, you know, basically without you.

00:17:16:06 – 00:17:33:19

And then that way you can focus on your passion. Well, that’s one of the coolest things about your story that I don’t know if anybody’s captured that in my life, but I certainly have. I mean, yeah, definitely. I see exactly what you mean. That’s nice. That’s nice to acknowledge. Yes. Yeah, I appreciate that, because it has been a journey.

00:17:33:19 – 00:17:52:18

I mean, it really has. I mean, that’s, you know, me, me, me and Mac. You’ve been married for. Gosh, we met. We met 25 years ago in London coming up. So we’ve we’ve we’ve had a journey ourselves. So I’m very proud to be working, you know, to be working with my wife, best friend. And we’re able to build this, you know, it’s awesome.

00:17:52:20 – 00:18:22:12

It’s a no, it’s I certainly don’t want to be back in the UK, that’s for sure. Yeah, Yeah. I know that there’s a lot of people that are listening that they started the agency to get to a point where it can sustain and grow without them. And some of them want to scale it, to sell it, scale it to work in their when they want to, and other people want to make it to where it’s basically like the the the cash flow for other ventures and purposes and things like that.

00:18:22:12 – 00:18:41:03

And so I think that people that are listening, that have that like that third reason on why they started the agency, I think they’re going to resonate with with it. And then the lessons that you’ve been teaching about process and delegation. So like that is actually how you get there. So yeah, really cool is the best way. Yeah.

00:18:41:05 – 00:19:07:05

that’s awesome. Awesome. Last question is, you know, for anybody that is listening that either well, actually, who is your ideal client right now? You talked about local businesses for office owns and then maybe the other audience can talk a little bit about those. Sure Yeah. Yeah. We we work with we work with any any business really, who would like to have their social media posts taken off their hands or take a little bit about what we do quickly.

00:19:07:05 – 00:19:28:20

We we have we have three different packages but we can we can post to linked in Facebook, Twitter directions. Hey now can’t say that anymore. Instagram, Pinterest, Google Business as well, which is a huge one if you’re if you’re a small business, if you’re a brick and mortar business, you’ve got to be on you’ve got to be posting on Google business because it’s amazing with how the SEO works with that.

00:19:28:22 – 00:19:49:20

But we also work with the marketing agencies. We have a really cool white label package where we give free, massively reduced costs of monthly costs to our overflow, our white label partners as well. So if you’re a marketing agency and you want to add something, you want to add something to offer your clients, we just want some social media taken off your hands.

00:19:49:22 – 00:20:10:01

Please get in touch with me because we’ve you know, we’ve we’ve been doing this a long time for a reason, because we deliver. And I think, you know, the white label part with the marketing agencies is is a big part of our business. And we very you know, we’re always very proud to work with the marketing agencies. So if you’re a marketing agency, you need some help.

00:20:10:04 – 00:20:29:08

Give me a call, a little pitch there. But yeah, it’s nugget. Cool. And then what is the best way for people to get in touch with you, Chris, on LinkedIn? Or you can email me or Chris offer sounds dot com or you can, you know, just pick up the phone. We love old school. I love it when someone just calls me up out of the blue.

00:20:29:10 – 00:20:49:12

It makes my day sometimes. So yeah, please, please feel free to give us a call. Numbers on the website office sounds dot com. Give us a ring. I’d love to speak to you. And you know, we’ll see, you know, see if we can help you. So I really appreciate that. Cool. Excellent. And for anybody that’s listening, you can check in the show notes for the ways to contact Chris and check out the website by Chris.

00:20:49:12 – 00:21:03:19

I just want to thank you very much for being on the show today. No, I appreciate the invite. Thank you very much indeed, Jesse. It’s been it’s been great talking to you and to hopefully your audiences, you know, can learn a little bit something from a Brit who knows that. So now I appreciate your time. You know, Thank you very much indeed.

00:21:03:21 – 00:21:21:17

That’s the way agency owners, if you want to transform your agency to sustain and grow without your direct involvement, where you can stop working in the business and start working on the business, where you can free up your time, delegate work more effectively, price and position your services to finally get paid for what you’re worth and have the team run the day to day.

00:21:21:17 – 00:21:38:19

Go to niche and control dot com slash case study. Now to learn more about leverage for growth and also to book a free strategy session with us, we’ll look at your systems determine exactly what you need to do in order for you to scale this year and to create a strategic plan so that you can live the life of entrepreneurship.

00:21:38:19 – 00:21:55:15

You’ve always dreamed about. Go to niche and control dot com slash case study. Now.

(Note: This transcript is created automatically and may not be 100% accurate.)