The Long Game

Kitchen Side: The Operations Episode with Gray MacKenzie (ZenPilot)

Episode Summary

Exploring agency operations with Gray MacKenzie of ZenPilot. Insights on scaling teams, balancing innovation and efficiency, and building systems for success.

Episode Notes

In this Kitchen Side episode of The Long Game Podcast, Alex, Allie, and David dive into the intricacies of agency operations with guest Gray MacKenzie, CEO of ZenPilot. The conversation explores how agencies can build scalable systems while balancing efficiency and innovation. Gray shares strategies for defining processes, the importance of integrating operations with delivery, and the cultural aspects of driving accountability. The discussion offers actionable insights for agencies looking to streamline workflows, improve profitability, and foster sustainable growth.

Key Takeaways

• Operations as the Foundation of Growth and Delivery: Operations should support marketing, sales, and client delivery through robust systems, but it requires collaboration between departments.
• Balancing Efficiency and Innovation: Agencies must find a middle ground between systematizing processes for scalability and allowing room for creativity and innovation.
• The Role of Culture in Process Adoption: The success of any system depends on creating a culture where employees understand its benefits and actively engage with it.
• Challenges in Scaling Operations: Gray highlights the pitfalls of pushing for rapid adoption of tools and processes without considering team capacity and readiness.
• Integrating Top-down and Bottom-up Resourcing: Combining long-term planning with day-to-day task management ensures efficient resource allocation and prevents burnout.
• The Inefficiency Principle: Innovation often comes at the cost of efficiency. Agencies must decide when to prioritize one over the other depending on their goals.

Show Links

• Visit the ZenPilot Resources page for our free guides and templates
• Visit the ZenPilot for more information
• Connect with Gray MacKenzie on LinkedIn
• Connect with David Khim on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Alex Birkett on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Allie Decker on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Omniscient Digital on LinkedIn or Twitter

What is Kitchen Side?

One big benefit of running an agency or working at one is you get to see the “kitchen side” of many different businesses; their revenue, their operations, their automations, and their culture.

You understand how things look from the inside and how that differs from the outside.

You understand how the sausage is made. 

As an agency ourselves, we’re working both on growing our clients’ businesses as well as our own. This podcast is one project, but we also blog, make videos, do sales, and have quite a robust portfolio of automations and hacks to run our business.

We want to take you behind the curtain, to the kitchen side of our business, to witness our brainstorms, discussions, and internal dialogues behind the public works that we ship.

Past guests on The Long Game podcast include: Morgan Brown (Shopify), Ryan Law (Animalz), Dan Shure (Evolving SEO), Kaleigh Moore (freelancer), Eric Siu (Clickflow), Peep Laja (CXL), Chelsea Castle (Chili Piper), Tracey Wallace (Klaviyo), Tim Soulo (Ahrefs), Ryan McReady (Reforge), and many more.

Some interviews you might enjoy and learn from:

Actionable Tips and Secrets to SEO Strategy with Dan Shure (Evolving SEO)

Building Competitive Marketing Content with Sam Chapman (Aprimo)

How to Build the Right Data Workflow with Blake Burch (Shipyard)

Data-Driven Thought Leadership with Alicia Johnston (Sprout Social)

Purpose-Driven Leadership & Building a Content Team with Ty Magnin (UiPath)

Also, check out our Kitchen Side series where we take you behind the scenes to see how the sausage is made at our agency:

Blue Ocean vs Red Ocean SEO

Should You Hire Writers or Subject Matter Experts?

How Do Growth and Content Overlap?

Connect with Omniscient Digital on social:

Twitter: @beomniscient

Linkedin: Be Omniscient

Listen to more episodes of The Long Game podcast here: https://beomniscient.com/podcast/

Episode Transcription

Time Stamps

• [00:00] Introduction and Episode Overview
• [02:45] Defining Agency Operations: Roles and Responsibilities
• [07:30] The Relationship Between Operations and Delivery
• [12:15] Building Systems that Balance Creativity and Efficiency
• [18:40] The Cultural Component of Process Adoption
• [24:00] Challenges in Scaling: Lessons from ZenPilot
• [31:50] Resourcing: Combining Top-down and Bottom-up Approaches
• [38:20] The Inefficiency Principle: Balancing Innovation and Efficiency
• [45:10] Diagnosing and Iterating on Processes