Personal Everest
Personal Everest is our apex on-demand mentoring service. Designed to allow for a close relationship with founders, we’re one of the team, the guide by your side.
Who is it for?
You will have a sense that your adventure needs to change, from being founder-led to becoming brand-led, so it can run without you. Your thoughts may also be looking ahead to preparation for eventual sale and exit from the business.
It’s for marketing agencies advancing from £500K towards the £1M turnover mark.
If you’re not quite there yet, you may be better suited to hivemind group service, Catching Fire
Personal Everest is ideal for those with complex and specific challenges that need a flexible, embedded, 1-1 mentor presence within the agency, and access to a range of experts with deep knowledge in specialist areas.
What does it solve?
Creating the agencies of the future means taking care of today and tomorrow. Today is all about the Big 5 challenges.
How does it work?
Chris Bantock and a team of Agency Guides, backed up by our expert specialist partners are available to you to meet the challenges you face, at the moment of need.
We’re not there just to give you good vibes, or put you on a rigid “on-rails” programme. We walk the walk of your adventure alongside you.
The Personal Everest Adventure includes:
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Range of options to suit different stages on your journey
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In-person and / or remote Guiding sessions
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On call for urgent questions any time
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Half-day sessions each month with expert partners
Support options range from £650 - £2400 + VAT per month, with a minimum 3 month commitment.
Chat to us about your tailormade adventure.
Big 5 Challenges
Sales & Marketing
Ensuring your team is well-fed along your journey
Positioning and differentiation: How to be a distinctive brand in a highly competitive sector, showcase your mission and purpose, and deliver a message that make it easy for people to want to work with you. Marketing strategy: How to spend budgets wisely on tactics that deliver ROI, create the right mix of marketing tactics and ensure that you don’t neglect your own marketing because you’re busy delivering for clients. Sales strategy: How to price projects competitively, leverage your skillsets to ensure the best possible profitability, and when to balance taking on projects that improve your profile, vs. those that put cash in the bank. Customer account strategy: How to keep your best customers happy without over-servicing. How to judge when it’s time to on from a client, or client type. And how to break the glass ceilings to the next level of work in terms of credibility, capability and risk profile.
People & Culture
Finding and motivating your sherpas
Building the right team: What does a core agency team look like to deliver your services? Who are those crucial first hires to complement the founder(s) skillsets. And how do you find and hire those people successfully? Adding headcount profitably: As your services expand and client expectations increase, how do you keep a balance between adding “fee earners”, with account management teams and other support staff, avoiding false economies. Maintaining a positive team culture: It’s hard to keep everyone in an agency team happy, all the time. How do you keep them pulling in the same direction whilst allowing them to have the career development they want? And how do you reward them, avoiding resentments around roles and remuneration. Dealing with team issues or crises: Good management is most important when things go wrong. How do you stop discontent infecting the agency and provide the right balance between flexibility and productivity. If someone isn’t productive, how do you resolve improving them, or moving on from them?
Finance & Profit
Funding your expedition and being rewarded for reaching your goals
Operating on the right financial model: What financial models work best for agencies? In terms of revenue generation, should you prioritise making services easy to sell, or profitable? And what is the right hourly rate, or should that not even be the way to price? Managing cashflow: Controlling costs is key to business resilience. Are your operating on the best possible terms with clients? Are your services balanced to provide liquidity? And what are the key costs to keep a close eye on at all times? Making the right investments: There are always many choice in how re-invest profits, how do you measure those choices and spend wisely? Better tech, more people, more marketing effort? And what are the processes and metrics that will allow you move the business forward in the safest manner? Balancing risk and reward: When is the right time to make changes? When times are good, or “just in time” when issues appear? Within your leadership group, how do you resolve these tricky decisions without becoming paralysed or just going on gut feel?
Strategy and Planning
Mapping out your route and putting all the logistics in place
Market awareness: While you focus on your business, what is happening out there? Which trends are just blips, which are fundamental changes to the digital landscape that you need to be addressing? Business structure: How do you structure your agency to grow effectively? By putting all your eggs into one core business, or by creating a group structure for services and cost centres? As the team expands, how do you keep a lean structure but retain effective middle-management? Staying ahead of competitors: How do your clients perceive what you are delivering for them, against others. And how do you ensure you are pitching effectively, to maintain a healthy win rate for the effort you’re putting in to acquire new clients? Deciding how to grow: In terms of your offer, should you broaden, or niche? What impact might those decisions have on your team? And how fast should growth happen? How do you judge when you’re in danger of stagnation, or in danger of moving too far, too fast?
Operations & Processes
Ensuring everyone knows their role and how to react to every eventuality
Tech stack development: Any modern marketing agency requires some degree of technology underpinning their services. What enables your team to do the best job possible, as profitably as possible, and what is a “nice to have”, or worse, a white elephant? Legal and contractual planning: How do you protect your agency from bad actors, or just clients with unrealistic expectations? How do you protect your own intellectual property from theft or misuse? What are the key factors in making our adventure a safe one? Office vs. remote working: How an agency operates has changed massively in the last decade. The next generation of talent has very different expectations from the last. How do we keep people happy in their work/life balance and provide an environment where they can develop and learn their craft? Resilience via process: What would a SWOT analysis of our agency uncover? Are we riding the wave of a particular success without seeing rocks ahead, or a need to pivot before it’s obvious to all? How do we avoid boom and bust?
Tomorrow is all about the Future 5 challenges
We always have an eye to the future. The Future 5 wont drive revenue today however they will have a massive impact in the future.
Equality & Diversity
Helping everyone’s talents be part the expedition
Sustainability & Planet
Navigating the expedition so others can follow
AI & Augmented Reality
Creating next-gen adventure experiences
Human & Workplace
Adapting to the changing ecosystems in which we live and work
Community & Ethics
Bringing together a tribe of like-minded people with a valuable common purpose