#27 The Magic Of Building A World-Class Library, with Broden Johnson, Founder of Yakk

My guest in this episode is Broden Johnson. Broden is the Founder and Chief Banana Replenisher at Yakk, one of Australia's fastest growing digital marketing agencies. 

Broden made his first million at 21, and lost his first million at 22. He has started many businesses and was a finalist in the Australian Young Entrepreneur Awards. Once a Beekeeper and Underwear Cold Caller, he has grown Yakk to currently more than 25 team members. Broden is also the Founder of 850 Espresso, a coffee company based in Yakk’s kitchen. 

To summarise his illustrious career so far, Broden is a washed up Beekeeper who lost a lot of money and then turned it around when he discovered he could succeed in business by hiring people more talented than he was and nourishing them with bananas and coffee.

Some of the highlights of our conversation include how Broden relentlessly asks the question: “How can I be there more for my team?”, growing a business based on customer feedback, the benefit of creating and maintaining a flourishing library at the core of your workspace, and responding to the challenges of scaling up. 

Enjoy the conversation.  

If you'd like to learn more about Yakk, go to: https://www.yakk.com.au 

For info on 850 Espresso, go to: https://eightfifty.com.au 

You can contact Broden on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brodenjohnson 

To learn more about what it takes to be an evolved leader, and to check out our other podcast episodes, go to:  https://www.evolvedstrategy.com.au

Chapters

• 13:24 How can I be there more for my team?
• 24:24 Get the right people on the bus
• 26:54 Growing a business based on customer feedback
• 28:54 Create and maintain a flourishing library for your team
• 35:09 A great strategic meeting rhythm
• 38:54 Responding to the challenges of scaling up

Transcript

00:02.45
davidmcdermott
Broden Welcome to the show.

00:04.36
Broden Johnson
Thank you for having me David I'll pray shadow.

00:06.59
davidmcdermott
Tell us about your leadership journey so far.

00:10.94
Broden Johnson
Oh that's a good question. It's a very big question as well. I feel that when you think of your leadership Jody how far back, do you go when does it when does that start? um for me I'm I'm going have to say that my leadership journey when I look back started. When I was in high school. Um and I came across my first mentor. Um, you know I stumbled across him and and he started to he started to feed me all kinds of books and videos and things that that opened my mind to to many. Different things that I had never you know sort of experienced from from mindset through to business and and naturally part of all that becomes you know, comes leadership and um, that's sort of where my my initial leadership journey started to begin and and like like you know started to evolve from there. Um. And that mentorship went for went for quite some time with that particular mentor and um, you know once I finished high school I ended up moving across the country to to go and work for this for this mentor and um it was it was ah it was really good journey and and and I'm really thankful for that. Um, at the time he he he gave me. The first book that he gave me and the first thing he ever he ever gave me was um, a book. You probably know is is thinking very rich. Um I think everyone in this space has probably read that book at at some stage so he gave me that book and he fed me things with from Bob Proctor and all this sort of mindset stuff that I that I really got into and he said brodan.

01:28.37
davidmcdermott
A.

01:42.21
Broden Johnson
Um I want you to want you to read this book every day and I want you to watch this video every night and and I did that for for a better part of probably two or three years um just every single day just just touching on it and and going through it. Um, and.

02:00.16
Broden Johnson
Turned out when I when I went up to work I went worked for for this guy for it for a bit when I was 18 and I felt like I was you know was really ready for this and it was a sales job I'd never done any sales I was a pretty shy kid actually um, and surprisingly I I Absolutely plummeted and I was terrible at the job. Um, which is ah which is which is fun. Um I didn't get any sales I lost like I was I worked hard but I just couldn't do it for the life of me. Um, so.

02:21.40
davidmcdermott
Um.

02:35.30
Broden Johnson
You know I My mentor suggested that you know I got I got got to dive into more of this I'm going to learn other traits outside of sales I need us to learn to be more confident I needed to learn how to how to?? um, yeah understand how to communicate more effectively and more of the psychology behind. Um, how what makes makes people tick and whatnot and. Um, I know you asked me leadership question but this is this is all part of it I feel is that understanding how people tick and how people work is ah is a big part of of leadership and understanding how to work better with them. Yeah, um.

03:01.24
davidmcdermott
Absolutely, It's great.

03:08.96
Broden Johnson
So I mean long story short I ended up I ended up jumping into a business and and and starting some things and built up a nice team and that was probably my first official leadership role where I was managing people and you know a team of just probably 25 or 30 people or something. Um, that was my first leadership position I suppose and it was ah it was it was a really great and on eye-opening experience. Um because it I don't know there's something about having to having to lead that I felt like I could I could I could do it.

03:31.50
davidmcdermott
E.

03:47.29
davidmcdermott
A.

03:47.54
Broden Johnson
I Could really just do what I needed to do um but that all came tumbling down anyway and then that was a that's a that's a story for another day. Um, Gosh I feel like I'm off course now. Um.

03:57.32
davidmcdermott
A okay well well you talked about um you know the only influence of this mentor. You know I think it sounds like you were um, you said you were 18 or even a bit before in these books that you. You received and I've heard similar things about you know some lucky people who in a very formative time of their life. You know at around age 15 or 16 they had a kind of mentor who influenced them you know and and often it was recommending a particular ball coming a friend of mine.

04:27.33
Broden Johnson
Um.

04:31.62
davidmcdermott
And met Robert Kiyosaki you know who is the famous author of rich dad poor dad. You know when he was about eighteen years old and he was driving Robert to 1 of Robert's workshops and Robert just said to him buy a property buy a property now and at the age of 18 you know he just somehow.

04:36.58
Broden Johnson
Are.

04:47.32
Broden Johnson
Um.

04:48.79
davidmcdermott
Figured it out and made it happen and it set him up for life. So can it can be enormously influential these these mentors that come in very influential at ah at a very formative age you mentioned think and grow rich which is a classic. What were some of the other influences at that time that you. You know you really benefited from.

05:07.54
Broden Johnson
Yeah, well surprisingly you mentioned Robert Kiwazaki that was ah that was that was another book that I was feted around the same time and this is about 16 and I became borderline obsessed with buying a property after reading that book. Oh that was all I wanted to do so you know when I was when I was 18 and and working I would spend.

05:18.44
davidmcdermott
Excuse me.

05:27.54
Broden Johnson
I'd spend mornings and evenings and weekends and I would just ah, just study everything I possibly could about real estate and property and amongst other things but I was up at three o'clock in the morning and I'd flip open my my my real estate books and. Would read through all these different things and on the weekends it was you know friends want us to go out and party I like Nonna I've got some optionsction I want to go and check out. Um, and I'll just go to these things and and surround myself with um the people that I wanted to you know that I was trying to I guess emulate and I wanted to just surround myself with with a good group of people and I didn't have.

05:46.21
davidmcdermott
Q.

06:00.94
Broden Johnson
Ah, you know a lot of those good pip. So I went and found them and I spent the time but Robert Kiwazaki was ah was a big was a big one for me too. Um, and then that I guess you know whenever I read a book I always try and find another book to read out of that book. So yeah, 1 thing would lead to another and you'd find another property book and then another. Sales book or another marketing book or another mindset book and um it did it did you know evolve quite a lot from there. So after I I parted ways with my mentor. Um I guess I kind of took on ah a self mentorship through reading. Um, and.

06:18.71
davidmcdermott
E.

06:34.95
Broden Johnson
You know to this day I read every single day and I love reading and um, if there's 1 thing I can ever recommend to it to a young person is is pick up a book and just start reading because there's so much good things out there. That's already been written. That's already being done that you can you can simply tap into. Um.

06:40.54
davidmcdermott
A.

06:48.41
davidmcdermott
Yeah, true.

06:53.56
Broden Johnson
Yeah, so more more more recently over the last few years I've really dived into more of the philosophical side of things which you and I have spoken about before as well. I really yeah, that's ah, that's something that I really like to dive into now and and explore a lot of different ancient philosophies and and what not as well.

06:58.51
davidmcdermott
Yes.

07:11.83
davidmcdermott
So let's go there and um, yes you and I have spoken about that. It's one of the ways we connect is is ah our interest in philosophy and I am a huge fan of leaders having a deep interest in philosophy I mean Plato was famous for. And the ideal of the philosopher king you know the leader whether it's actual royalty or not but the leader who is a philosopher who studies good systems of of management whether it's actual government or organizational leadership who looks at what works and what doesn't who's deeply interested in that passionate about that. Finds the model that works for them and then applies it and ah you know that's that's something I really bring to um to my work in in terms of coaching and consulting is ah is connecting our rich history philosophically both west and east in the in.

08:00.73
Broden Johnson
M.

08:08.11
davidmcdermott
Leadership development. But what you know?? What's your view on um, not just philosophy generally, but also its application to the work that you do as as part of a way of segueing into yak because I do want to talk about that too. So and yeah, what.? What's your response to that.

08:28.75
Broden Johnson
Yeah, um, look I think I think whatever it philosophy it is whether it's west and or East and I think there's a lot of similarities there and and all all philosophy ties in and that's and I think that's really why I've dived into it even more because you know for the past 10 or or 15 years I've been exploring all these other. You know, business books and and and sales books marketing books and you know your traditional sort of books that you know like scaling and and traction and um, good to great and like all these you know I guess business books you would call them and then when I dived into the into the philosophy thing and I've picked up my first philosophy book I can't even remember what it was but. I started to explore that I realized that this is not new like this is this this business thing that we do today. It's it's the philosophies that that the best leaders around have have been. You know that what makes them the best leaders is is being around for forever. Um, and and we can learn from that and.

09:20.63
davidmcdermott
Um, yeah.

09:23.70
Broden Johnson
Um, you know and then I started diving into well you know what? if it's not just you know there's all leaders and I started to explore more into biographies and and autobiographies of of all the best leaders um in time and finding out you know what makes them the best leader. Why are they the best leader and and but also what what wasn't.

09:40.48
davidmcdermott
Is is.

09:41.63
Broden Johnson
Great about them and what didn't people like about them and what can I learn from that and trying to apply that on top of all the learnings that I'd already you know sort of developed through business and leadership and and coming up with my own style amongst that. Um, but again, even my own style is someone That's probably being done before as they say.

09:52.15
davidmcdermott
E.

10:01.30
davidmcdermott
Yes, absolutely well know tell tell us more about how that plays out at yak like you know I know you are the founder of yak. It's a digital marketing agency. Um, and you know when I when you and I met I was really interested in. You know, certainly yak and and the fact that you you built this company and it's growing. You know, really strongly. But also your um, your philosophical background. You know you have this really interesting reflective manner and I I observed you in our first meeting you know I could see you were someone who knew how to listen you know I could. I can see that you just really gave your attention to the person or people in front of you and that that was a quality that was very obvious. Um, how I mean you don't have to comment on that part. But how ah how are you going in terms of your leadership role at yak.

10:58.66
Broden Johnson
Yeah, um, no, it's It's a good question and um I think it's always evolving and we have to constantly be you know, evolving in in everything we're doing um you know if we're not learning then what are we doing right? Um, but I mean.

11:10.44
davidmcdermott
Is.

11:15.61
Broden Johnson
The the style that I I guess if you if you were to give it. Ah, if you were to give it a description. It's It's probably comes across as as quite casual. Um, but it's it's I come across from ah a trusting and and empowering perspective that um I work with wonderful and fantastic people and I know that they're.

11:27.56
davidmcdermott
E.

11:34.74
Broden Johnson
Wonderful and fantastic of what they do and that's why they've that's why they're here as part of our team and um I've give an immense amount of trust to each and every single person that I work with to do what they need to do so for me, there's there's there's no level of of micromanaging needed because um, the the trust. I give first and and in in return I'll get it back. Um, and that's that's very much how I how I do lead is from ah from a trusting perspective and um, my goal as ah as a leader is to be there to support them in any possible way that I can um, they're they're the lifeblood of of yak they're the lifeblood of what we do and. I know that I can't do anything of what what we do today without the awesome team that we've got so that's the most important part to me that's where I spend my day and that's what I want to always have my focus on is how can I be there for my team more. How can I how can I help them more. How can I um.

12:14.95
davidmcdermott
8

12:28.72
davidmcdermott
If.

12:28.91
Broden Johnson
Help them develop themselves more what are their goals and and that's always 1 of the first questions ask in every interview is what are your goals like I don't like you you sound wonderful but like what are your goals. What are your twelve months goal what are your 5 year goals um I know you might not be at yak for ever.

12:40.31
davidmcdermott
Um, yeah.

12:43.56
Broden Johnson
Um, So what do you want to do later and and if we can align our goals and make and if I can help you achieve what you're wanting to do and we can align that with with my goals and and yak's goals and we can work together then that's the best possible outcome to get there. So I think it's for me, it's always it's it's coming from ah from more of a place of Love. Um. And seeing what can I do to just help them and um, that comes right back to you know? where always we we catch up regularly. Um, just as ah as a one on one or we come together as a team on a regular basis and um, that's there to help us cultivate a really nice culture and make sure that we work together. But.

13:19.67
davidmcdermott
A.

13:22.80
Broden Johnson
Again, it always comes back to how can I help you? How can I How can I serve you? How can I be there to help you improve and how can I empower you to be a better leader in yourself because I don't want I don't Want. We don't want just work as we want. We want to have a team full of Leaders. So. That's my job is to is to cultivate leadership in others.

13:42.60
davidmcdermott
And that is an awesome attitude and it it is the number 1 thing that you know the the top leadership theorists and um, ah Patrick Lindsey on is is one of my favorites and I mentioned him fairly regularly his um. He talks about the top job of the Ceo is exactly as you said I mean he breaks it down into roughly 5 areas but they're all about supporting team leadership team as ah, both individually and as a group and through the the whole team and not to be finance guy not to be the marketing guy not to be the sales guy but to be the people guy. The guy who's supporting the people that is the job of the Ceo and and Patrick and I agree Patrick says it's the toughest job in the company and so you've got you know you've got the number 1 focus absolutely right? And it's a really really healthy and attitude and principle that you present tell me this Broen. So if I'm ah a new yakka. You know I I go through the interview it works for both of us I book in know to begin we sign a contract i. Ah, come in for my first day sit down at my computer with my lovely yak coffee and which I know is something you guys are big on is the coffee that you that you make there and I get ready to start. Um, working away on on helping you know yak clients with their Google ad campaigns and.

15:03.83
Broden Johnson
Yeah.

15:12.43
davidmcdermott
Facebook campaigns Facebook ads and Instagram and Linkedin and all the rest of it. Um, and that's that's what I'll be doing day to day in terms of delivery to clients and as as yac's core servers but what will my experience be over time say ah. You know over the first twelve months but whether there's ah, a daily rhythm a weekly rhythm a monthly rhythm but roughly over the first twelve months in terms of my growth and development. Um the support side of the business where you're coming from a place of love as you say and you're interested in how you can support. Um, ah. Your yakas but what does it actually look like to me starting there and being a ah team member.

15:56.58
Broden Johnson
Now it's ah it's a really good question. Um, and I don't think there's one size that fits all for for each person because everyone learns differently. Everyone develops differently. So you know a big part of what I want to understand is is how how do you learn? How how do you develop and how do you like to work. Um. I mean and and how we did it twelve months ago is going to be different to how we do it now. So I mean coming in your first day I'm I'm likely to to have sat down with you understand what your goals and and visions are and um, ideally is you know we're going to go through as as boring as it might sound I like to I like to share. You know as part of our core values and who we are as people that this is what we're here to do these Ah these are these are some of the core values that we work through and um, what that interpretation means to us and us as a team when we came up with that. Um, and then again depending on what role you're doing and how you're working with there's. UnkS ah like we've got ah we've got a leadership team within the company that if you're on a team with another leader. You're probably going to work quite closely with that particularly leader because you know my role is not to know the technical ins and outs of how to do some of these bits. Although I did them once upon a time. Um I will then then work you'll then work with you with your leader to.

17:01.64
davidmcdermott
Um.

17:12.78
Broden Johnson
You know onboard yourself there I do I do like as as harsh as it sometimes is I do like throwing people in the defend and going through where they're at but that ah cover depends on their level of expertise that they already have if they're if they're fresh off the boat with no experience then naturally there's going to be a bit more of a.

17:19.68
davidmcdermott
E.

17:32.96
Broden Johnson
Rigid training process that we're going to go through on educating them on how we do it. But if they've come in from a prior experience then we're gonna we're going to embrace that experience and show them how we do it but at the same time say hey you know you've been doing this for 10 years How how how could you see if we could do this better and. And someone I always like to preface right? at the start is that regardless of whether you've been here a day or or years if you've got if you've got things and that that you feel that you could share that are going to help us improve um, share it because we all are here to learn we all here to develop and regardless of your experience if you've got. You've got a unique experience so share what you've got on how you think you could do things because that's one of the best ways that we've got and we're all here to work together. So there's not 1 right way but collectively we want to try and always work towards improving you know one day at a time.

18:24.42
davidmcdermott
Um, well I've got I've got another. You know some some other questions about the development side but you've just mentioned something that I want to hold in on a bit more which is really systems refinement systems improvement which is that.

18:26.00
Broden Johnson
And that doesn't answer your question particularly but it's ah it's it's It's a pretty fluid journey.

18:41.60
davidmcdermott
An essential activity for ah, a successful business to be running an optimum is how do you build a culture and it is a culture thing where and your team members are actually interested in and engaged not only engage with the systems that you've set up in in a way that you want them to. But also in a constant and ongoing way they refine the systems and where they see something that's not working at at optimum they suggest a change and they can make those changes often themselves and then just you know talk to their their manager or.

19:08.64
Broden Johnson
Oh.

19:15.41
davidmcdermott
Whoever it is just to get signed off and then the system is updated for everyone to have to be using a more efficient system after that because the business is just ultimately a huge machine The actual business part. That's just a big collection of systems and subsystems and sub-subsystems and they can all be documented I know and. You know the the methodology I recommend to clients is to actually incentivize ah team members financially and you know there are ways to do that that a certain amount of productive suggestions for system improvements per month. Yeah leads to ah a certain bonus payment. Yeah, there are there are a whole bunch of ways to do it. But how how's that side of things at yak I mean you talk to you talk about systems improvement and how do you actually get team members to suggest improvements and make them.

20:07.89
Broden Johnson
Um, well I suppose it comes back to what you sort of started. It's part of the culture. It's what we're It's what we've embedded in from from the day they've they've met us. Um, you know I mentioned those sort of things that and in the interview that hey you're you're the expert here like give us your input. Like like if you can see ways to Improve. We want to work with you and that's that's I guess ingrained in all of us that nothing since Cement. We're always looking at improving um where we' we're a pretty dynamic and and flexible bunch of people that can that can move if if there's a better way to do it. We'll we'll do it. But. To take a step back on that it's It's also comes back to that. Not every time we make a shift. It's for the Better. Um, and that's where your trial and error will come through. So um, there's been times that I've you know I've had I've had suggestions come up and we've we've given them a ago and if whoever it is if they think that it's it's something that's worth trying.

20:50.98
davidmcdermott
Um.

21:01.37
Broden Johnson
Um, and we've gone through the process. We've done a bit of research on it. It's not just ah, you know an Id thrown out of thin air. But if it's if there's a genuine idea and something that they want to try then I'm willing to back that they that they know what they're talking about and I'm willing to back that they're making this call for a reason and let's give it a go.

21:12.20
davidmcdermott
A. Who.

21:18.77
Broden Johnson
We don't have to roll it out and companywide. But we can We can give it a go. We can try that particular thing out and you know what? if it doesn't work. We'll roll it back. But if it does great. We've we've managed to improve and if we do that enough times the majority of and and the majority of these are are a success then we're going to constantly move towards efficiencies.

21:26.33
davidmcdermott
A.

21:38.38
Broden Johnson
But if we were too scared to even try them in the first place then then we're going to. We're going to become stale and we're never going to. We're never going to improve so that's that's part of you know our our ingrain culture is it's like challenge and status close the status quo challenge what we're doing question what we're doing and why we're doing it because we don't need to do it. Why are we doing it.

21:39.70
davidmcdermott
Yep.

21:58.35
Broden Johnson
And if we can look for better ways to do it then and great go for it and anyone and everyone are making suggestions. Um, whether and honestly I've had people come in on their in their first week and make a suggestion and we've said that's that's brilliant. Let's do that. Um, and I think having that culture where people feel like they can share that.

22:05.83
davidmcdermott
Mm.

22:10.52
davidmcdermott
Means.

22:17.17
Broden Johnson
Um, is is good and I think it's Jim Collins and good for Grady talks about the bus having people on the bus in the right seat. Um, that's very much how I feel that that we are is where we're all on the bus. We're all going in the same direction. We've aligned our goals together. It's in our best interest for everyone on this bus to to make it go.

22:23.98
davidmcdermott
That's it.

22:30.32
davidmcdermott
Um, yep.

22:35.25
davidmcdermott
Um, yep.

22:35.58
Broden Johnson
Where it needs to go the best we can um and we always you know and we've we've been lucky enough to have awesome people on this bus so far. So um, it's it's it's it's yeah, that's kind of where we how we roll with that.

22:49.40
davidmcdermott
Well, that's that's really cool and tell us more about um where the bus is going So I know like the digital marketing space is is clogged and you and I have spoken about this and by clogged I mean um from a ah. Ah, business person's Perspective. You know you told me you do too I get you know, probably 4 or 5 emails a day from digital marketing companies trying to sell me their services just cold. You know without any invitation from me to connect or reach out and how how do you find operating a business in this space where there is so much. Aggressive marketing and and how do you do it successfully.

23:29.49
Broden Johnson
No I like that um look you're right? It is ah it is a very busy area I feel like every every man in their dog If. You've got a telephone or a laptop you ah you can be a marketer.. It's a very low barrier of entry which is which is unfortunate but honestly like what what we do and and. What we do it for um the the main goal has never been To. You know to make a billion dollars and and all get filthy rich right? That's never been the goal and and ah and it ever will be um, growing and the growth that we've had so far has been a byproduct of our main objective which is.

23:56.82
davidmcdermott
M.

24:07.90
Broden Johnson
Client-first like what can we do today or tomorrow that we that we couldn't do before. That's how our services have grown. That's how that's how we've just grown naturally that I didn't I didn't start yak doing all the things that we did I started off just doing one thing and.

24:20.68
davidmcdermott
Is.

24:23.33
Broden Johnson
That was because that came from a demand that that we started doing that and we started doing that really well. Um I'd never worked in an agency I'd never worked in marketing price. So I didn't have any bad habits I like to call them from other agencies or how things were done I was I was I was green I was coming into this. Um and my only focus and my only feedback I had.

24:31.50
davidmcdermott
Q.

24:42.24
Broden Johnson
From the clients I was working with so I would just ask them. How do you want to be treated. How do you What? what? do you want to see from us and I got the feedback directly from the source on what they wanted and we just started doing those things so as we started to grow. We started to add more services because we realized that hey if we start doing this service now. And we find an expert in this field. We can actually complement what we're already doing and we're going to improve results again and that just happened over and over and over again over the years that we've you know we've built out to be a full suite marketing agency and branding company now that we do you know Google ads right through to video production. Um.

25:17.40
davidmcdermott
A.

25:19.85
Broden Johnson
And everything in between that it's come from ah from this sense that that same question. How can we provide a better service to our clients and what do we need to do to get that. So um, if you look at other agencies. You'll you'll often find that they're what we would call like.

25:38.50
Broden Johnson
Like I don't know salespeople account people like clientfacing people to to the technical side. Um their their teams are often flipped compared to ours that we're very tech heavyav and we're here to provide a service and a really good service and that's that's because that's been our focus is that? Um, yeah, we've got people there to talk of course. But.

25:42.26
davidmcdermott
The.

25:56.55
Broden Johnson
We're not ah, we're not a big sales team or anything like that trying to just bring on millions of clients We We're reversed in that we just want to focus on doing an awesome job. Um, and do it do it better than anyone else of course and you know don't be afraid to to challenge that status quo as I said earlier? Um, so. Think outside the box but also have the expertise to know what works already and just develop upon that. So I often encourage books and um I've I've got ah I've got a library here above my desk of of marketing books and I'll often just buy you know, 50 or 60 marketing books at a time and and.

26:31.41
davidmcdermott
A.

26:33.99
Broden Johnson
Fit them in in the library here and we've got a library system for the office so anyone can come and grab a book and I'll recommend books to certain people and say hey you should read this this particular part or you know here's our um, audible account if you'd rather listen then you know listen to this book on some on some marketing techniques on what's work outside the box. Um, and we spend time.

26:46.25
davidmcdermott
Yep.

26:53.75
Broden Johnson
Developing that in our in our team meetings we'll ah we'll share marketing ideas that we've seen So if we've seen something out in the wilderness that was a bit different. We'll share it as a team. Um, we'll look through all the best advertisements and all the most best performing ads in the past and um, then just see what worked out of them.

26:59.30
davidmcdermott
Um.

27:13.48
Broden Johnson
Because that comes back to the core value of what can we do for the clients. That's gonna be better and that's that's that's the main focus So that's where the bus is always going is how can we improve and the the growth is is is a byproduct of doing a good job.

27:29.62
davidmcdermott
And you've said something which is um ah I just want to highlight which is that you have a library and it it may seem to some you know inconsequential but to me, it's actually really significant. Is you know the um, the value of your. You know the material that you're accessing you and your team that you're encouraging your team to access and work through is really what? What ultimately makes the culture in the company. Of course you know with the support of coaching and the right structures for conversations at an appropriate regularity and. The the how are you going and what are you finding most challenging and you know what? what are your biggest wins to celebrate. That's all really really, really important too. But it's not so common that a business has a flourishing library and I just yeah I think it's the first time on on this on this podcast that.

28:10.67
Broden Johnson
M.

28:26.30
davidmcdermott
We've had a business that talks about their library and it reminds me of my time at second road the strategic innovation consulting firm ah second road at the time had ah a really comprehensive library for consultants particularly around strategy and innovation. But there was a lot around poetry. Particularly poetry related to organizational leadership. Ah you know a vast database of books on strategy and and consulting and leadership development and there was a. Something like a seventeenth century translation of Aristotle's rhetoric which the whole company was based on which was framed in a glass cabinet opened at a certain page where everyone you know clients would walk in and ah that that's what would be facing them and it it just gave a richness to the to the organization. It gave a depth. My my first job at second road was I was told to go to go to the library and spend three months reading all the books that interested me and I was paid just to read fascinating. You know, books on consulting and strategy for three months and it was just fantastic and so I love that you you also. Take the same approach that you you have ah not ah, not a dormant library but a flourishing library and I want to call out to listeners to business leaders and you know people who are building businesses who aren't existing businesses large or small consider the benefit of ah of building.

29:58.55
davidmcdermott
And maintaining a Librarian and having a culture where your team members access it and and and stay at the cutting edge and really are pioneers in their field partly as as a result of having having this content available to them.

30:16.26
Broden Johnson
Yeah, absolutely like like for for me books are the the the greatest thing in the world. That's that's that's where I've learned everything that I need to is is from books and you know if I've got ah a challenge or or a tribulation or or anything that that stumbles me i. I will go on Google and I'll Google books that are going to solve that problem and I'll read through it and I'll I'll find the answers. Um I'm a big believer in in in mentors and coaches and advisory boards and I have all those things as well. But the the book for me is something that I can that I can find a particular topic on. Can find experts in their field that I can dive into and that generally leads me down a rabbit hole of not just one book but 20 books in that I walk away really understanding what I need to do there but I guess I want to put it out there as well that there's. There's there's reading a book and then there's actioning what's in the book and there's a big gap between that sometimes that often when I'm going through a book I'll be I'll be actioning as I go and and um, you know I'll try other bits out there. So if i' if I've read a book like traction. 1 of my favorite business books. You know I went through and I implemented every single part of that book as I was going through.

31:07.27
davidmcdermott
E m.

31:23.84
davidmcdermott
Yeah.

31:25.39
Broden Johnson
And not all of it was necessary for me, but there was a huge amount of parts in there that I use that I still do every single day today in the business. Um, and then I'll share those things with that with the team that I find so for me that's been a big part of my of my learning. It's helped me immensely with understanding. People understanding leadership and how to you know how to how to give out. Trust it's helped in in all other areas like I'm ah I a father and a husband. Um, it's helped with my personal life. It's helped me with raising kids. It's it's helped in in every area of my life lifestyle that I can possibly think and for that there's.

31:58.37
davidmcdermott
New.

32:02.10
Broden Johnson
There's there's nothing greater than and picking up a book or or having a read of something.

32:07.60
davidmcdermott
So moving moving into the final phase of our conversation today. There's a couple of questions I want to make sure we address one is I know yak is growing and and you know you've just renovated the second floor of the building you're in to to create space for the. You know the the way the team is growing and what is your vision you know over whatever timeframe you prefer 105 years whatever whatever you you prefer to speak to for the business. Um, you know is it a sort of the ski is the limit approach or do you have a specific size or you know. Revenue goal or or any other measure that you'd like to get to tell us about that.

32:53.28
Broden Johnson
Yeah, sure. Um, well I mean as ah as ah as a company although we were small in the early days in the in the first you know twelve months of of sort of setting up yak. Um me and the small team we had we set a 5 ive-year goal and that's that's been a goal that we've had. Ever since the start and we go through it every ninety days with our growing team and we call that the rocks which is from that book I mentioned earlier traction so we go through our our quarterly goal setting and we go over the five-year plan. We break it down until a twelve months plan and then we break it down to what are we going to do in the next ninety days as a team to achieve this goal. And who's accountable for what and we break out as a team go through it spend a couple hours get really clear on it and then over the next 90 days we touch base and we work through those goals. Um, and naturally as ah as a business that some of those some of those goals for a measurable perspective. Although it's not the focus are financial. Um, but others are that. We want to be the leading marketing agency in Australia for what we do. We want someone to think when they think marketing they think yak. Um, and that's been the vision ever since we came up with the idea of yak is that this is never this is not going to be a small thing this is going to be yak. It was trap that that name was chosen because it's a name that is is not you know, it's it's not um you know whatever Johnson Marketing consulting or it's it's ah it's a it's a catchy name. It's short. It's sweet. It doesn't mean marketing but it will and.

34:19.17
davidmcdermott
E.

34:20.47
Broden Johnson
We want to. We want to build yak to be a place where it is the the best marketing company in Australia and that means that we've got the best team as the first and foremost that's the highest priority we've got to have the best team members. We've got to have the best team you know culture. We need to want to have the best talent want to come and work here. Um.

34:28.35
davidmcdermott
M.

34:39.30
Broden Johnson
That then means we need to have space and hence the renovation so we needed more room. We needed to cultivate more space to to bring on more people. Um, and I don't think that will slow down but over the next I think 2 years that we've got left on this on this five-year plan is well probably double again in size. Um, and I I don't have any doubt that we won't get there because we just we're all we're all focused on achieving that and we've got really clear roadmaps on what we need to do and as long as we just keep ticking those boxes and we keep going through the processes of if we do this this this.

35:09.80
davidmcdermott
E.

35:16.69
Broden Johnson
We've broken the plan we've broken the five year plan down into small byte size chunk. So we know what we've got to do each week to get there and we're just need to keep going with that and sometimes it's scary sometimes it's it feels like it's There's a lot happening but that's also part of life that if we're not prepared to to you know tackle these challenges head on then when.

35:27.57
davidmcdermott
A.

35:36.44
Broden Johnson
Probably not going to hit the goal so we have to be ready to keep the foot on the gas and and just go to town and get out of bed each day and make it happen and get excited about it and that's something I don't have any trouble with I'm I'm excited for the next couple of years on um, where we do go.

35:53.38
davidmcdermott
Well, that's really cool and I ah wish you all the best with with that particular goal and I love that you've said you know the best marketing agency in Australia means first and foremost having the best team and it's not just about the biggest. It's about and and the best team you know you've spoken to some of those attributes today of of what makes a best team but particularly what ah you know the main thing I'm coming away with is that culture of support of ah of people having freedom and independence to play the way they'd like to play and they naturally play. And to be encouraged with stimulating content partly. Yes, from the library but in other ways and and I can hear you've really got that down so you're you're doing everything that um, that ah you know you need to be to actually achieve that goal of of being the best marketing agency in Australia. And um, and you're you're very well positioned to achieve that. What about you as a leader broaden and you know as businesses scale and you you have scale already and you're you're going to continue to scale and scale brings. Particular challenges. You know more complicated financial structures. Sometimes it's necessary to bring on a board and you know increasingly the people and culture function and leadership development becomes important more and potentially more complicated strategy considerations.

37:20.10
davidmcdermott
Um, and and a whole raft of other factors. You know a larger clientele and you know the need to have more stringent processes and structures for client relationship management team structures, etc, Etc, etc like everything. Ah. Generally just takes on a layer of of um of complexity as you as you scale So in terms of you as an individual leader you Broaden What are you preparing for and what are you working on yourself whether you call it personal or professional development and to be able to. To face the challenges that you know are just a natural part of of a business growing bigger.

38:00.92
Broden Johnson
Yeah, no, and and I think like any business we've we've still got those challenges and um for me I Want to make sure I've always got a bunch of smart people around me that know stuff that I don't know because there's ah, there's plenty that that I don't know and and I find out I found out more and more things that I don't know every day. So. Having having really good people around me and people I can ask advice from people that I can touch into that have that have done what I've that where I'm going. Um, you know it's great to have people that are a few steps ahead of me that I can lean on but there's also a lot of experience that we can take on that that on someone that.

38:33.10
davidmcdermott
Is.

38:38.74
Broden Johnson
Done a completely different business and how do they run that and what do they do? So you know systems and whatnot is stuff that we're always going through and that stuff that's always going to evolve and we've changed our systems number of times like from a you know software c ourn perspective number of times over the years because what we had there worked for 3 people. But. Now you know when we're this many people we need. We need something different. We need something a different process and that will always evolve as we mature as the company as well. Um I don't ever see that that that stopping because each time we go to the next stage we have to almost almost plateau to get on top of everything. Then we go again for another for another step up and we've found that that that's typically been like that we've had really good growth a bit of a plateau to where we've refined our processes got ourselves in line then growth again then plateau and that's I can I see that continuing happening. Um, but for a personal personal side.

39:27.90
davidmcdermott
E.

39:34.74
Broden Johnson
That's like my I just love learning. Um I always have I love reading I Love finding out new things on all kinds of things often I'll just pick up a book that I haven't read the cover on and I'll just read it because it's like I want to see what someone see what this book's got to hold and.

39:49.27
davidmcdermott
Thin.

39:51.71
Broden Johnson
Quite a few times I've been delightfully surprised in reading a book that I would have never thought to read um and so for for me I have always tried to look at you know what are the things that I struggle with um and as I mentioned earlier I was I was a really shy kid initially in in high school like if you asked me to. In front of a group of people and and talk to Them. You know you'd see a puff of smoke and me running out the door. Um, it was It was not something I was comfortable with so I I saw that and I realized that so you know I said I set a goal for myself when I was 18 and I got into this you know into the around the business world that um.

40:15.31
davidmcdermott
2

40:30.30
Broden Johnson
I want to I want to be able to speak in front of ah you know thousands of people because that's that's a point that I feel I'm not good at like I know I wasn't I knew I couldn't um so I started you know I joined toast mastersters I looked at things like that to get myself out of that comfort zone. Um I started to ask.

40:41.14
davidmcdermott
Yep.

40:45.41
davidmcdermott
And.

40:48.71
Broden Johnson
Around for for opportunities to to speak and I've done it quite a lot now but some of the you know one of my I guess one of my proudest moments was one of the first speaking opportunities I took a few years ago and that was um, instead of high school. Um, you know I had an opportunity to to share my business journey with with a bunch of high school students and.

41:06.36
davidmcdermott
Um.

41:08.46
Broden Johnson
Um, run over some some things that I'd learn and and I put that off for for quite a few months because I was just I was I was too nervous to press the green button and go and do it but 1 day I was listening to to some sort of motivational speaker and and he said something about you know if it scares you do it. So.

41:16.30
davidmcdermott
Right.

41:28.61
Broden Johnson
Called audience and said book me in for next week and I went and did it prepared and it was. It was great and um, it was really easy. It wasn't hard. Um, and I've done it I've done it lots of times since and and I do really find the joy in in. Um, you know sharing my journey with uni students and and and high school students and whatnot and there's no business benefit to that. But it's just a.

41:29.20
davidmcdermott
From.

41:47.58
Broden Johnson
Like that audience in particular Um, but other times I've gotten up in front of other people and and I want to continue to develop that. Um I actually started my own podcast a few years ago again for the same reason that I wanted to develop my my speaking I wanted to get better at it. So I said well I'll interview people on a podcast.

42:01.85
davidmcdermott
Um.

42:05.30
Broden Johnson
And that'll force me to talk get out of my comfort zone. So I'll probably spend the rest of my life trying to find ways to get out of my comfort zone and hopefully that never stops. But for me, it's just where else What else can I do I Love I Love a good challenge I Love working on different things I love.

42:06.89
davidmcdermott
2

42:20.53
davidmcdermott
Um.

42:24.40
Broden Johnson
Just trying to get my teeth stuck into things that I haven't done before and and things that scan me a little bit because you know that's the I feel like that's the best way I can grow.

42:26.80
davidmcdermott
M.

42:32.50
davidmcdermott
Fantastic. Well thank you so much brodan and you know that's been an incredibly fascinating interview and to to hear what we could hear and in this short space of time about about your rich history and I know there's plenty more. But. And I know listeners will just and get a lot of benefit from from a whole range of the both personal and you know business aspects that you've shared. So thank you very much for your time today.

43:04.84
Broden Johnson
That's right? David thank you so much for having me mate.

43:07.90
davidmcdermott
And I I should say you know for people who who want to reach out and whether they're interested in. You know, um, may availing themselves of yak services or you know reach out to you personally with with questions. What's the best way for them to do that.

43:26.18
Broden Johnson
Um, look if it's for marketing then buywins jump on jump on our website reach out. You can give us a call. Um, you'll have a bit of a chuckle if you call out one three hundred number can learn some interesting facts about yaks or email us. Um.

43:36.26
davidmcdermott
See.

43:40.60
Broden Johnson
Reach out in any platform you like I'm always ah, always trying to make myself available to to chat to people in whatever it might be so that's the best way to get me.

43:48.50
davidmcdermott
Call so we'll put some of those ways to get in touch in the show notes Broden. Thank you again.

43:58.55
Broden Johnson
Now I'm really pray shot it. Thank you Matt.