I got my second dose of the shingles vaccine yesterday
Today, I feel like crap — exactly as expected.
So I’ll share some observations from the experience that may help you as an agency owner.
But first let’s look at the latest SAGA content along with what Jen has rounded up for us this week.
— Chip Griffin, SAGA Founder
Latest from SAGA
COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS — Your team is using AI to get their work done (bravo!), but they might be using their personal AI accounts to do it (not so great). And you owners may be guilty of this as well. In the latest Agency Leadership Podcast episode, Chip and Gini offer some strategies for how to manage “Shadow AI” at your agency.
Jen’s Weekly Roundup
Here’s what caught my eye this week:
NOBODY’S JOB UNTIL IT IS — Guest Cimin Cohen calls out the attribution illusion on The Innovative Agency podcast, and over at Spin Sucks Gini is giving me nightmares with a number that should also bother you: 29 percent of organizations admit no one owns what AI says about their brand. That’s how a solar company found itself fighting a lawsuit an AI Overview made up out of thin air. Yikes. RSW/US finds the gap in your outreach emails, where a filler opener like “hope you’re doing well” gives an AI summarizer nothing to grab, so it either skips your email or hands the prospect an empty summary. And For Immediate Release reports that 43 percent of managers don’t feel ready to lead an AI-fluent workforce. Please get yourself and your team up to speed asap so that I can stop giving you bad news.
PLANNING BEFORE THE PRESSURE HITS — Shannon Burch at Spin Sucks makes the case for starting Q4 planning in July, which sounds early until you realize the alternative is scrambling in October. On That Solo Life, Karen and Michelle celebrate their 350th episode (cheers!) by advising solos to treat burnout as a business risk, not a wellness topic, with an absence clause, a named backup, and a runway fund saved in advance. Sharon Toerek put in some time at seven conferences this spring, learning that agencies have stopped panicking about AI and started writing the policies and contract language before something breaks.
CONCRETE ANSWERS OVER GUESSWORK — Wondering how much new business you should be aiming for? Upsourced says roughly 20 percent of revenue from net new business is the healthy target, and anything wildly above or below that deserves a look. And on this week’s Agency Outsight, guest Matt Dean spent two years dabbling in other industries before admitting his own pipeline had already told him his niche. He went all in on commercial real estate branding and never looked back.
— Jen Griffin, SAGA Community Manager
What my shingles vaccine experience can teach agency owners
Back in third grade, I had chickenpox. It wasn’t fun.
Being of a certain age, it was recommended that I get the shingles vaccine.
I knew it wasn’t known as an “easy” vaccine in terms of side effects, but from what I understand getting shingles itself is much, much worse.
So I signed up.
It’s a two-dose vaccine and the second is supposed to be worse than the first. My first shot experience wasn’t great, so I knew to try to keep a lighter-than-usual schedule for a couple of days after the second one.
Of course, we all know what they say about the best-laid plans.
I still have a fair amount of work to do today, including some timely client projects that can’t wait and, naturally, this newsletter.
So let’s get to some semi-random thoughts from the experience that apply to the work that many of us do:
- The nurse who gave me the vaccine was brutally honest about how this second dose would make me feel. In fact, I knew in advance what she was telling me, but her presentation almost gave me second thoughts! As business leaders, we often need to find how to balance blunt honesty with getting the desired result. Always think about how your message is being received, especially in tone and language.
- As business owners, we often feel like we can’t take time off even when we try (see above). But the reality is that we can. Did I really need to write this newsletter today or could it have waited? Would my client have been understanding about the need to gently push a planned deadline that wasn’t a crisis?
- Sometimes we need to choose between two non-ideal options — like a difficult vaccine or the underlying disease. We all need to make our own cost-benefit analyses and decide what is right for us and our businesses.
- Scheduling matters. As owners, we have greater ability than most to structure our schedules to help — not just with time off but with making our lives easier. Don’t be afraid to carve out time for personal business or juggle your schedule to accommodate a lighter workload when needed.
- Think about your team, too. It’s easy to gripe when employees miss meetings for personal appointments or take a longer lunch to get some errands done. But we need to remember that we all have the same challenges, so we should be prepared to offer similar flexibility to those who work for us that we feel like we need for ourselves.
Oh, and perhaps the biggest takeaway is this: sometimes you need to accept that you’re not able to deliver your best work. You need to decide what to do.
This week, I decided to be satisfied with “good enough” and “done” as my standard for this newsletter.
If I fell short, that’s on me. Either way, I plan to be back with some more thoughtful insights next week.
