Scaling from solo to agency with Kristina Bartold-Sorgota
Packed with gems on hiring, training, finding clients at scale, and social media
Lex Roman
August 30, 2023
Low Energy Link of the Week
Not sure how to test your marketing? You’re in luck! This Friday’s Growth Gym livestream is on How to run a marketing experiment.
Thinking of making your first hire? Or maybe you’re wondering how to scale your amazing talents across to your current team?
Either way, you’re going to want to get to know this week’s featured guest: Kristina Bartold-Sorgota of The Social Snippet.
Kristina had a rapid rise from solo coach to successful social media agency co-owner and in our interview this week, she shared how that happened and what you can take away from her strategies and mindset.
When you have a team, you need more work to give them and not just that, but it’s got to be work they want to do! Or they’ll jump ship.
I have been working inside and alongside agencies for most of my 16+ year career and I’ve seen many examples of how business development (marketing, lead generation, sales and client experience) can play out. But I don’t know any agency owners who talk about their client or team cultivation the way Kristina does.
You’ll get a lot out of this episode if you are working on scaling your company or if you’re building out your online audience. Kristina and I also talk a lot about community building and how social media for service providers is really about depth of relationship (not follower count).
My top three takeaways from Kristina include:
Skill self-awareness: Kristina’s background is in managing people so she knew she wanted to hire, train and foster a team. She spends more of her day now empowering the team rather than in client work.
Invest in training: When adding new team members, especially ones that will work with clients, Kristina and her partner Maria have a robust training process and they pay people for their time to go through it. This goes for freelancers working on their projects too.
Social media is more fun as a community: Kristina thinks of her social strategy as developing a community (not as a post pummel.) She explores this not just on social media but also by encouraging people to turn off the screen and meet her at real life events.
Speaking of online moving offline, I’m heading up to Toronto next week to join Kristina and Staci Millard at their Business Breakthrough event. If you’re local to the area, I hope to see you there.
Tune into the full episode for all the gems Kristina shared and let us know your favorite takeaway by replying to this post.
P.S. I’m giving away a free sponsor spot on my small yet mighty podcast to whoever refers the most subscribers this month (ends tomorrow). Check below for your unique link to share!
⚡Lightning Round Picks
Creating happy corners of the internet: For more on social media as community building, listen to this stellar interview between Brandy Cerne and Claire Hueg
Max’s Community Newsletter: A recent discovery from Max Pete who specializes in building communities for orgs like Freelance Founders and Creative Mornings San Diego.
Intentional networking event tomorrow: For BIPOC founders looking for their business community, held by Carissa Begonia
Calling all introverts! I’m looking for your tips on networking as an introvert for an upcoming series
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