The Missing Piece of Compassionate Leadership - Wheelhorse Web

Building a successful agency often requires reinventing yourself along the way. In this episode, Julia Wilk of Wheelhorse Web shares her journey from translator to agency owner, explores the challenges of narrowing a niche, and reflects on the leadership lessons that helped her move through burnout and become a stronger leader.

Inside this episode:

•  Why what got you here won’t get you where you want to go next 
•  The importance of clear expectations, boundaries, and accountability in  leadership 
•  Leadership lessons learned through burnout and self-awareness 
•  How coaching accelerates growth for agency owners and teams 
•  A critical lesson on business continuity and protecting what matters most 

Transcript

Show Intro

Russel 0:01

Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, where owners and experts share the real journey, the early struggles, the breakthrough moments, and everything in between. I'm your host, Russell Dubree, former eight-figure agency owner turned business coach who sold my agency and now helps agency leaders create their ideal business. Every agency has a story, and this is your front row seat. This is An Agency Story.

Meet Julia Wilk

Russel 0:31

Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Julia Wilk with Wheelhorse Web with us today. Thank you much, so much for being on the show today, Julia.

Julia 0:39

Thanks for having me, Russel.

Russel 0:40

Glad to have you. Exciting conversation ahead, I just know it. Start us off. Tell us what Wheelhorse Web does and who you do it for.

Julia 0:48

Sure. Well, we are a website company focused specifically on WordPress tech support and ongoing maintenance. We do some digital marketing services as well, and we have another brand called Trifecta Web, where we build new websites in partnership with a graphic design partner, Carolyn Matt, who's also based here in Vermont.. We're really focused on the technology that they're using because it's support based.

Gardening Niche Tease

Julia 1:14

However, I will give you a fresh, bleeding edge news update. Uh-oh.

Russel 1:19

Uh-oh. This is always my favorite.

Julia 1:21

Currently... Yeah, I'm currently exploring a niche in the garden industry- Okay garden centers. One of our early biggest clients for the longest time was a bonsai supply company. Hmm. We just started a new project for an orchard, and starting to seem like a trend, and I love talking about plants all day, and- Okay selling plants via e-commerce is, uh, it's a specific thing. So, you know, I'll put that out there. If anyone listening- I'll say wants, you know, a free website audit in the gardening niche in, let's say, in 2026, reach out to me. We're looking to, you know, talk to people and kind of hear about what they're experiencing. I

Russel 2:01

love this. Breaking news on an Agency Stories podcast. Breaking news. Yes. Um, I'm guessing you have a green thumb and not a plant killer like myself, so that, that there's some natural love and affinity for the, the green space.

Julia 2:14

I will say, you know, though, it's kind of a those who can't do situation Those- Ah. who can't do a website, you know? Yeah. You're- I know my, I know my strengths. Although- You're... That's right I will say I've been gardening a lot recently, which I'm sure has a little bit to do with why this is- it's all coming together.

Russel 2:30

It's always great to have a little bit of passion in your niche just beyond, on it being a, a good- Yeah product development and client acquisition process. But I'm, I'm glad, I'm glad you're going down that route. It's a- it's an important one.

Bonsai Banter

Russel 2:42

And so it's a journey, not a destination, as I always like to say. And it also made me think, as you were saying there for since I was, like, a kid, I've always wanted a bonsai tree, and I've never had one. I feel like this is just a reminder that Russell needs to honor his younger self and go get a bonsai tree sooner than later.

Julia 3:00

Absolutely. I support this 100%. Okay.

Russel 3:03

Free will. I think may- maybe I, too, am worried about killing that, that, uh, I'd, I'd go snip crazy on it or something and kill it. Hmm. But you know what? I'll, I, I should just try it, and we'll figure it out.

Julia 3:13

Yeah.

Russel 3:14

But, but I thank Mr. Miyagi for that. Ever since Karate Kid came out, I've always wanted a, a bonsai tree.

Julia 3:19

I think that, as with everything, which may come up later in the conversation, but it requires practice. So I think you need to give yourself permission to accidentally, uh Let's emphasize the accidentally- Yeah part. Uh, kill one tree maybe- in your yard. If,

Russel 3:36

if- Per- permission to kill granted. All right. Yeah. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. I, I will feel better about it and, I'll give it a good burial in the process. But, well, uh, fascinating start so far. Can't wait to hear more.

Julia Origin Story

Russel 3:49

But before we get into more agency talk, I'm curious about the young Julia of the world, how she came up in the world.

Julia 3:56

Wow. Yeah, absolutely. I, I don't think that being in websites was necessarily a huge... I, I do remember making a, a website for a hockey team, like, in high school- Okay and it was very much one of those, HTML, and then I was like, "Look, you guys." That was very exciting to me. My parents though were both, early computer programs, like- Oh, okay I'm gonna ugly language here. They met in Cambridge, Mass. And so I think I had a lot of exposure to technology growing up. I remember, me and my dad taking apart computers in the backyard and stuff like that. But I am the only entrepreneur in my family, and but that's really the part that I think I can say from an earlier age, I do always remember having a vision of just the independence and the flexibility of being able to, like, choose my own path. I didn't really see myself working in an office necessarily.

Russel 4:50

So what was young-- I know young Julia was selling something door to door or something as a kid. What was the product of the day back when you were younger?

Julia 4:57

Oh, that's a really good question. Did I start businesses when I was younger? It seems less about, like, commerce to me and more about, like, creating something- Mm and setting a plan or a vision in motion, which I think is really where... That's what I love about being an entrepreneur, is... A- and also I think something that can come and go as an entrepreneur, and that can be part of the ups and downs, is that when I have a vision for how something is gonna work, I'm very excited and I can work day and night on that. When I don't really see how what I'm doing is leading to something exciting, that can be difficult, and working for somebody else just does require sometimes you don't see the vision, but you still have to be in the process for quite a while. Whereas I think when I am lacking vision in my own business, I'm like, "It's time to take stock, return to the big picture, think about my values and where I want this to go." So- Yeah, I'm sorry I don't have a pithy

Russel 6:01

anecdote- No, that's all right. That's all right from that much younger, but Yeah, I was just certain that where you're going, that you were, selling drawings or pictures from Selling lemonades. I do remember

Julia 6:08

having a lemonade stand that- Oh, yeah instead of lemonade, we were selling, like, jewelry that we had made, and a lot of people pulled over being like, "Oh, no, I'm just really thirsty." Yes. Not very good marketing, I would say. Not- It was misleading.

Russel 6:22

Fair. That's fair. Well, we won't fault, the young version of yourself for not being excellent at the marketing skills yet, but at least you tried. Yeah,

Enneagram And Vision

Russel 6:30

I love the visionary. I remember... So we met recently at a conference, AI conference for agencies, and I know we got on the Enneagram topic. I think I remember your number, but if you don't mind, what is your Enneagram number?

Julia 6:43

I am a three on the Enneagram. That

Russel 6:45

sounds so... Okay, that makes such sense there. Yep. Yeah, but I

Julia 6:47

think I tried to peg you as, like, maybe a six or a two, and you were like, "Nine."

Russel 6:52

Yeah. Which

Julia 6:53

now that I've known you a little bit longer, I can k- I can definitely see that even keel and

Russel 6:59

yep, yep. Nine for sure. But, yeah, the three, the visionary, the achiever, that makes total sense. And so I can see that, where that's played out in your journey. But speaking of your journey, what's the lead up to before you actually started your agency? What were you doing? What ultimately made you decide, "You know what? I'm gonna go live out this entrepreneurial dream"?

From Translator To Agency

Julia 7:19

Well, my first career was actually as a translator and editor. Hmm. I studied modern languages with a, a focus on French translation, and immediately started working in a, a subtitling company where I worked for years. I worked in the office there. I moved back to the US, 'cause I was in Montreal at the time. S- I continued working freelance for them for a long time. But I love to live rurally. I love the peace and quiet, which I'm sure you can relate to. Just the closeness with nature, and I was, like, in the middle of a state forest. And at some point, I wasn't really feeling satisfied with my job. I just didn't really, didn't see the vision of the future. Yeah. And I wanted to do something where I could connect a little bit more with people in my community and get out of the house. And so I was just... I actually, at the time, did a lot of research about, what, it's my quarter-life crisis, what makes a satisfying career, right? But I got the advice that doing something you're good at that people really need and value is usually a good recipe for a satisfying work. So I just started looking around who was in my community, what did people need, and I just saw that I was a lot more tech-savvy than most people near me, connected with somebody who already had a, a Mac repair business in a nearby town, and we shared an office. And I actually started the business and, this business and a mobile phone repair business- Oh. at the same time because I was like, "Oh, he's getting all these people-" Also a

Russel 8:50

need. Also a need. Oh, yeah.

Julia 8:52

Um, found out that one was way less profitable, as you can imagine. Really? And also less interesting, to be honest, because, you know, fix one phone, you fix them all- That's also correct, yeah at a certain point. But yeah. And then I focused full-time on on a wheel horse at that point

Russel 9:08

Yeah, it makes sense. I, I... When you're saying the translation piece, obviously a very strong skill you had. I, I was like, "Okay, well this is not, this is probably not gonna satisfy the visionary, the entrepreneurial nature you have." So I'm, I'm glad you were able to take that leap. Yeah. Was that scary at all? Or was, were you just driven by I see the need, I see what I wanna do, and it wasn't- Hmm you weren't too worried about what you were leaving behind or security or anything like that?

Julia 9:32

I think I had a nice runway available to me because I was freelancing for the other company, so I was able to feather them and- Yeah. And slowly transition. And you're absolutely right. I think translation to me seemed like something I could do from anywhere, and I could have my own clients, and I still saw the self-employed vision, the entrepreneurial vision, but it's just not really my skill set. Yeah.

Russel 9:56

Fair. Totally fair.

Hard Lesson Backups

Russel 9:58

Okay. So, so you kind of did this evolution from the freelancer to growing a little bit of team to saying, "You know what? I'm a full-on agency," and now you've changed your name. What has been one of the maybe tougher lessons that you've learned early on in your journey that's shaped where you're at today?

Julia 10:17

Always have redundant backups.

Russel 10:20

Is this from a, is this from a tech or is this like a more universal concept? No,

Julia 10:24

I mean like literally from a tech, like I have some trauma where I'm just like, I won't even tou- you know, I won't even go near it until we have that sorted out, you know? Um- Nice that's a very literal answer, obviously, I think. Um- Hey, that,

Russel 10:37

that, that could be a reminder to someone right now

Julia 10:39

you know, if you have a we- a backup that's only accessible through your WordPress dashboard, that's not good enough. If you have a, if you need to have something on a different server, like what if your hosting company just implodes overnight or you forgot to pay the bill and they do not help you? Yeah. It's like there's some business continuity planning that, that can really go a long way in the beginning. But also I feel like you have to go through that stuff to learn your lesson and-

Russel 11:06

Well, well maybe, maybe with your message right now that someone won't have to and, and it is, it can be hard to think of more one-off or not worst case, but bad case scenarios and, and protecting against, but I would've loved this lesson in the early days of our business if we were... I don't know where you were then in the late 2000s, but, uh, we were keeping our entire, like all our files, our cl- like our, Photoshop files, like just basically every single file that we had in the business was probably like in the first year or two on a external hard drive that we would just port around who- whoever needed it or whenever they needed it, and of course one day it dropped and broke and so then was unrecoverable. Oh. So we, we lost-

Julia 11:50

Oh, no

Russel 11:50

had to, had, yeah, had to go recreate, uh, all the current designs and whatnot we were working on. I think that was probably the worst part was the designs that got lost, so- Oh, my God I'm, I'm here for the redundancy.

Julia 12:00

Yeah. I would say in the early, like it, just on a personal level, my claim to fame has often been recovering files from different friends, like dead laptops. And I think that's, that gave me a false sense of security. Like, oh, I'll always figure it out later, 'cause I keep being able to bring things back from the dead, so I wasn't careful enough. But just big picture story is like we had a big client that was to me at the time like, "Oh my God, this is like a big deal," and we did have backups, but, I had never tried to restore those backups at the time, and it just didn't seem like the pri- I just assumed whoever had worked with it before me had taken care of making sure there was redundancy, and you just can never assume. And it was very, very, very stressful. We did recover the site with the help of somebody else, and oh my God, e-commerce really brings a lot of challenges, so- that's what we do. Yeah,

Russel 12:58

I, I, uh, I don't miss the e-commerce days. We were a web company as well, and, uh, I don't miss those days at all. You

Julia 13:06

don't miss it? Yeah. I mean, when it's going, when you're able to fix something, it's very exciting. That's true. But when you're... That, I would say that event was like one of the most stressful experiences of my life, for sure.

Russel 13:16

I can feel that. Well, maybe this is just what we need to declare as a strategy is like every business out there, one day a year, redundancy day. Redundancy. And you go, you go figure out where are you most at risk for redundancy issues, and clearly after your s- example, that you need to test some of your redundancy, to make sure that it actually does work so you don't have a false sense of security, and, that might be a good business practice. Re- re- National Redundanc- what, what is it? May 27th, National, uh, Agency Redundancy Day. There you go. I'll see what it takes- Yeah to get that, official great reminder there.

Positioning Into Garden Centers

Russel 13:52

I wanna talk about, 'cause you, you brought it up at the beginning, and you know, I've, I've seen enough positioning journeys to know that it, it, they all run similar But what's interesting is I don't know that I've ever had someone on the show admit like, hey, this is a thing I know I'm supposed to do, but I haven't done it yet. What has moved you in that direction or makes you feel like that's a path you should go down when you think about just further refining the positioning of your business?

Julia 14:18

Yeah, I've certainly thought about it many a time. I thought, I love to skate, maybe I'll do ice rinks. Like, all the ice rinks around have, the most terrible websites with the schedules. And there are so many different s- problems in the world you could try to solve, but often you have to test the waters a little bit to find out what's gonna be a good fit. But recently we've been really serious about Just that rethinking that long-term vision as far as scaling they always say, like, whatever got you to this point is, is gonna be different than what gets you to the next level.

Russel 14:51

A- amen. Yeah. Oh, s- say that again. Say that again. Yes.

Julia 14:54

Whatever skills you had or whatever processes you had that got you here, you're probably gonna need different ones for, getting to the next level if you've plateaued, you know? And that's very much, I think we're, we're in a pivotal point for now, or right now. But I've realized as I start thinking more about, like, how am I gonna do sales to grow the agency to get a little bit more of a consistency and not be serving people just that I meet around me, so I am also thinking it might be really nice to be able to go to conferences or be part of communities where people are in the same business and I can really start to understand a little bit better, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel a million times, being able to develop some things that we can just get really, really good at delivering. Excellent. Y- you start to hear the same problems over and over, but if you are constantly working with a different business, that is less, less true.

Russel 15:54

That's amazing. I feel like you just wrote a mini audiobook on just the importance and value that comes from positioning, from being able to show up in the right room, better understand their problems, better solve those problems, and that, yeah, rather than just relying on what's around, what's in the neighborhood, Yeah or serendipity, I think in a lot of cases too. Um, so-

Julia 16:14

Mm-hmm

Russel 16:15

and that, uh, that's, that's great to hear that you're on that journey. I mean, do you find that scary at all? I mean, I know, I know the big hesitancy is around, it's, it seems like you have a very grounded approach. It's more about who I'm going to include, not who I'm excluding per se. But do you- Right find that thought scary or does it just feel right and time.

Julia 16:33

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. It-- I feel like that is common. Like, it does feel scary to focus because you're worried potentially there won't be enough in that focus to fill your plate, you know? And the thing is that that's why I say we're exploring the niche. We- the thing is we've, we've had, had this kind of validated in the sense that we've had people reach out to us in the niche enough that we can see like, okay, we actually-- people-- there, there are these people that need this particular

A Competitive Connundrum

Julia 17:03

service. So one hesitation that I'm kind of mulling around right now is that one of the things I feel that we're the most well set up to do for the garden center, like plant via mail, e-commerce type client right now is SEO and marketing. And if we're looking at a national scale, actually a lot of the people in that business are kind of competing with each other. Like everybody's got lilacs, you know? Everybody's got- Mm-hmm certain things. So that's something that because we do SEO services, but it's not one of our flagship products, I haven't spent a ton of time thinking about Non-compete, non-dis- Mm-hmm like non NDA issues, and I wanna make sure that I'm doing that ethically. I mean, trying to work with multiple businesses that could be directly competing for Google Ads slots and things like that. I haven't quite figured that part out yet. Yeah. So I think to start with, I'm gonna be focused a little bit more on like how we can streamline that. A lot of people in this niche, I've learned, have issues with their ordering process and the fulfillment, having it be seasonal, having special mail needs. That's kind of where I wanna focus to start and just get the fulfillment part really easy, 'cause I think what people are most interested in when they start one of those businesses is working with plants, not managing an e-commerce store. So I'd like to help them make that part as smooth as possible. And then with time and sorting out some of those maybe ethical issues with the competition, expand a lot more into how can we get a lot more orders? How can we make you, you know, at the top of the, the list for your flagship product and things like that.

Russel 18:47

Yeah. I, I love the questions that you're asking yourself and right, you're just, you're again, speaking to the power of it, of just the intricate level of understanding the, the challenges and the pain points and, and how to solve those. Or even just trying to figure out, going down the mission, I guess you could say, of solving that. And that's a lot of the value where I think so many folks, I just kinda mentioned this earlier of positioning it right as a, as a biz dev play, which it absolutely is, but just as much as it is, it's a product development play to figure out w- everything you need to know and build and create to solve those problems. And I learned also in the course of that way more things than I've ever thought about the plant business. And that's another facet. If you would've Said, "Hey, Russel, what, what challenges do you think plant business is having?" I'd be like, "I don't know. Like, um," Yeah "sun, sun, water, um" Sun, water. Those things

Julia 19:38

come up too.

Russel 19:38

Yeah, yeah. But, uh, way, way more intricate perspective there, so that's pretty cool.

Positioning With One Proof

Russel 19:44

But, yeah, really it speaks to, I think Some folks might try to have questions about where to position. And one of the things that, you know, sounds like maybe you have more options than that, but you only need a case study of one to really validate going down a particular path or whatever. You don't need an abundance of. It's if you've proven success or even just enjoy a particular sector, that, that can be, and yeah, like, like it sounds like in your case, bring some passion, some results, and a good case study. Doesn-d- doesn't necessarily take a lot more than that.

Julia 20:16

Yeah, let's hope so. I'm hoping that

Russel 20:19

will help. Fi-fi-fingers crossed, toes crossed, eyes crossed. We'll wish you luck there. Something e-else I, I wanna switch to that I know is, is part of your journey, currently is coming into your own from a leadership perspective and just navigating that, which I know is such a huge just, um, endeavor, weight, and challenge sometimes it feels so yeah, just open that can of worms and I'm sure we'll have no shortage of things that go down the path there.

Julia 20:47

Oof. Yeah. That's a, that's a juicy topic for sure, Russel.

Burnout And Finding Coaching

Julia 20:54

Yeah. Well, I think I might have mentioned to you at one point that I'm coming out of a, a time of burnout. And we, and I also know we both are... love sports, right? Yeah. We have like tracks that- Oh, yeah Um, so I have part of a roller derby team, and I do a lot of coaching and leadership on the training side there, and I also run my business and I feel like a lot of times those two tracks are running parallel as far as me learning how I wanna show up as a leader. So sometimes when it's going badly, it's a little double trouble if on the op-opposite side at least I'm getting extra experience and, as I mentioned earlier, applying deliberate practice to my business. Like, it's something that I do when I skate and I love being in that flow state, and then I started to like realize, oh, I'm not really doing this in my business. I'm just kinda shooting around like o- I try something and if it doesn't work on the first try, I'm like, "Ah, not go that way. Let's go this other way." But yeah, then this is something might be is particularly interesting to you as a coach, is that at one point as I was feeling really burnt out, I realized like I'm coaching everyone, no one's coaching me. And at the end of the day, I have to coach myself as well. It's like also in our, in our league, it's... I think it works best and I wanna cultivate this environment in which some people get the chance to be both the mentor and the mentee depending on the situation, um, because I think that just really like lends balance. And I know I really value coaching. I think having somebody who's outside yourself to first of all provide some structure sometimes is just really a huge, huge value add. Yeah. And also to get you out of your- Your repeat, like whatever bone your mind is chewing on, that might be the wrong one. So I sought out coaching when I was feeling this burnout, and I was like, I was even thinking like, "Should I, you know, should I go get like a job working for someone else and come back to this later?" I don- you know, I was really soul s- searching at the time, but a lot of what came out of getting some coaching help was revisiting my values, revisiting what is the version of myself as a leader that I want to be, that I respect, and that I-- that doesn't betray myself as well. I think the coach I was working, I've been working with recently has helped me to see like some of the aspects of codependency that can come out of trying to lead in such a way where you're not really giving the person a chance to take care of their own side of the street, you know? And trying to make everything okay for everybody all the time. Whenever something's not working, I would say to myself, "Well, it's 'cause I didn't do a good job of leading and managing." And-

Russel 23:41

Mm-hmm

Julia 23:41

just having delegating and working with others means you have to accept that things are not gonna be perfect all the time.

Being The Bad Guy

Julia 23:49

So giving the control, setting the expectations, and also coming from that Enneagram three perspective. The three in an unhealthy time can just be so image conscious, and I just really had to get rid of that. For me, that ends up coming out as I have to be like the inscrutable, like I have to be completely perfect as a leader, and if I ever do anything that is maybe could be seen as unfair or something, then I kind of back off of every expectation I had set because I feel, oh, it's actually my fault now. And I had to be okay with being the bad guy sometimes. Yeah. That was really the key point, is that You can think I'm the bad guy, but I'm not. But if that helps you to move forward- that's fine with me. Right. I'm okay with playing that role, 'cause sometimes somebody does have to be the bad guy if the bad guy is just the one that sets the boundaries. Do you know what I mean?

Russel 24:51

The, one of the greatest, from my business coach back in the day actually told me, and I think he actually came from, of all things, a manufacturing background, but, what this, this stuck with me ever since. I think this is so true, especially in an, even in an agency space. Every office needs a son of a bitch. Pardon the

Julia 25:06

language there.

Russel 25:09

Yeah. Um, it, it's kinda true. You just need that person, that personality, and sometimes in the certain times in your business that has to be you. But where we all could use a little more accountability, we need someone to push us and drive us a little harder and even if only in the back of their mind that we know they're there, that, that is a necessary force and it's not bad and it's not, it's not a sword you wanna swing all the time, but it's, it's very necessary.

Accountability Push To Grow

Julia 25:32

Yeah, I mean, sometimes in order to have success and grow as a person, you have to do things that you don't wanna do. And this is why we have personal trainers, by the way. How hard would it be to be doing a workout while also, like, co- It, it is... I mean, I also make my own per- training plans, but it is very hard to push yourself while you're doing the hard thing. And so- Yes sometimes you need somebody to, like, hold you to the fire a little bit and be like, "I believe that you can do this, and where it's at right now is not acceptable. And actually we just had an amazing roller derby success where somebody had been struggling with a skill, and it was this one skill holding her back for so long, like, I'm talking about years. And, we came up with this plan where I was like, "I'm not willing to just keep having you at practice if you're never gonna get this thing. And I haven't seen you try day in, day out. Like, let's do 40 reps every practice." And it was hard. It was hard to face that thing that felt really, like, discouraging and, like, she wasn't making progress and this and that. And it, it's like, it's been, like, two months and she can do it to the level as good as anybody else, you know? It's crazy how much, like, facing the fear of trying something difficult It really helps to have somebody else Yeah give you the push, you know?

Russel 26:59

Well, some, some people, sometimes you need someone to push you out of the airplane. It's not that you can't do the skydive, you just need the kick in the butt. Um- Yeah y- I mean- Having that

Julia 27:08

balance is good. You know, we're not trying to, like, non-consensually or anything, but just being like, "You say you wanna achieve this, and this is your problem, and-

Russel 27:16

Yeah

Julia 27:18

you need to face it."

Russel 27:19

Well, and, and, and gosh, I mean, uh, there's probably about 27 really fascinating tangents that we could probably go down from- 100%,

Julia 27:27

yeah

Russel 27:27

what, what you shared there and, and it is a big subject. I mean, I think in, in the coaching I do with folks that when, when we're focused on this part, how they're showing up as a leader and all these kind of different things that, you need some polish or whatever, that it, it takes some time. And so, but, I love what you were sharing there at the end of leadership is just, is not about making people comfortable. When you were using that personal trainer example, it's not just even teaching you how to work out. I just... I can think of in, physically in my life when I've gotten the best results, it was someone there to get me the extra rep or two, or- Mm-hmm just the accountability- Yeah that if they were gonna be there, I gotta be there. And in so many kind of intangibles that really get the power out of it, honestly.

The Extra Percent

Julia 28:10

Yeah. Have you ever, um, rowed crew? Are you familiar with rowing as a sport?

Russel 28:15

No, no. Not at all.

Julia 28:17

Well, you've got a, you've got a boat full of people, and you've got a coxswain who is a little per- like, usually a small person sitting in the front. And yes, they're steering the boat, and they're making sure that everybody rows in unison, but when you're on the rowing machine doing your workouts and you're, sometimes you're going for a certain time on a 2K or something, the coxswain is there too, yelling in your face because you absolutely row faster if you have somebody motivating you there. And so, like, I just always think of that example 'cause it's the most blatant thing of like, no matter what, people would definitely always get better times if they had somebody like, you know, pushing them in the moment

Russel 29:04

That's, that's amazing. A- and a really good example, I always think in, when I coach people, look, I'm not there to take you from 0% and something to 100%. You've already got 50, 60, 70, 80, 90% of the way there sometimes. I am that extra 10, 20, 30% to polish, get it over the hill, or just add some juice to it. And, i'm gonna have this image now of a, um- a co- coxswain yelling in my

Julia 29:31

face. A coxswain just, you know, yelling at you right in your face. Yeah. Right. And you're liking it the whole time. You know? Not, not the whole time. You're liking it after the fact, I'll say. Yes,

Russel 29:39

yes. Well, thank you. Yeah, that's exactly right. When you are going through the moment, you, they might, you might be cursing at each other or whatever, but, uh, w- well, you know, everyone will thank each other afterwards. And yeah, everyone needs it. I mean, I, I truly believe this, and one of the things I'm even finding the power of is, one, like I always says, nobody needs Russel more than Russel. But even in my ability to help others, Someone said recently, hard to do brain surgery on yourself- Oh, yeah even if you know the answers and you know how to do it, so. And the best athletes in the world still have a coach. The, there's never an end to this need of having coaching. And I'm sure it sounds like, "Yeah, you're biased, Russel." But, you're right, I am biased 'cause I've experienced it. I still experience- Yeah it to this day, and, on both sides- Yeah of the table.

Julia 30:20

Yeah. You've had a coach, too. I mean, we all know- Yeah the value of that.

Russel 30:24

Have a coach. I have a coach. Um- You have one

Julia 30:26

now,

Russel 30:26

yeah. Yeah. I have, I... Probably 90% of my business entrepreneurial journey, I've had a coach at one point in time, either, either a specific function, uh, of something I was trying to learn or do, or just kinda more general mindset overarching.

Leadership As Environment Design

Julia 30:40

100%. Yeah, there's also something that we've talked about, I don't think we talked about on the recording that I wanna come back to 'cause it's juicy, um- that you mentioned, like... I keep saying juicy, like what?

Russel 30:50

Hey, I like this. Hey, listen, it gets people, people that might be, uh, fading off in their car or their c- Right. Right uh, hear juicy- Exactly and then they're, they're locking back in

Julia 30:58

You heard it here first, folks. We're about to, like- Yes talk about something really pithy and, you know. Anyway, you were talking about leadership and coaching. Coach- coaching is definitely one part of leadership, but the other part- Yes that became a lot more clear to me recently, y- you know, you had a podcast episode about unmanaged and, I was talking about feeling very, like, I really related to what was said in that podcast. Just that a lot of leadership s- s- is the coaching, but maybe even the more important and bigger part is about cultivating environment for people to grow and, like, setting them up with the things that they need to just be successful on their own, rather than trying to walk them through every single step of what they're doing, which sometimes being there with them is really valuable if somebody needs structure. But sometimes they can do it themselves, it's just you need to basically just be that, like, defense person who's just removing roadblocks aggressively and also, figuring out what is the situation that's going to lead to a good result so that other people don't have to be thinking about... Like, and this is again, that comes back to the, like- Providing structure. It's very exhausting, I think, to be in the detail work and trying to hold the big picture at the same time, and that is something that I have really struggled with in, in my time of burnout. I'm like, "I really need to check my email, but what about our business financials?" Yeah. Like, I feel guilty whichever thing I'm doing because the other thing is not taken care of, and that's where I started to be like, "I need more help in my business. I need to be able to focus a bit better," and really step into the leadership position instead of trying to be the leader- Yeah and the employee at the same time, and not doing the best job at both that I could be doing.

Russel 32:49

I appreciate you just being so open and honest about a leadership journey which can be personal, and it's can be hard to reflect, and it comes with its own set of feeling like a big failure some days, but, it being a worthy endeavor. And, and I take that last bit just of just the importance of, I always say this, owners are so skilled. They're so good at what they do, which I think is part of this problem sometimes is it's getting everyone else to catch up. But what you talked- Yeah about of this room for failure and giving the space for that, uh, as much as you can because that's where the growth happens and, as long as it's not blowing anything up, any client accounts or otherwise, With our

Julia 33:28

mistakes maybe, but like- Yeah yeah. Yeah.

Russel 33:29

The, the more room for failure we can give and make sure that we help them learn from that, that's, that's where real progress comes.

Julia 33:37

Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Russel 33:40

Perfect. Well, thanks again for, for sharing and, opening up the, behind the curtain on, on your leadership journey.

Scaling To Work On The Business

Russel 33:47

You talked about, you know, thinking about growing, scaling. What's the big goal with all of this at the end of the day? What are you trying to achieve?

Julia 33:52

The next goal in my sights as far as how I'd like to scale is I would really myself like to be fully working on the business 100% of the time. Well, it's, it's a great segue from what we were just talking about. I think I've realized that I really love that big picture vision, and I would like to get to the point in my business where I'm focusing 100% on working on the business instead of working in the business. I still would love to talk to my clients. I think I just... I'm picturing it now much more like do you ever go to an old-fashioned restaurant where the owner is going around to different tables and being like- "How's everything? How's your meal?" You know? Yeah. That's... I wanna be that person 'Cause I love connecting with people, and if I'm burnt out, I'm an introvert at the end of the day, so if I'm burnt out, I'm not good at it, and I don't like it. I'd like to be coming from a resourced place where I'm confident that I can actually get that work done with, for them without having to do it myself, and I think that'll just really be a much nicer way to connect with the people that I'm serving is, like, "What else can we do for you? How's everything going? How can we improve?" And also just improving our processes, supporting the people that are doing the work. Like, that's my vision right now. I don't have a specific sales number, revenue number that I wanna reach. I'm like, once we get that taken care of, then we'll go on to the next thing. That's I think what I need to feel like- Yeah I have a satisfying life. Do you know what I mean?

Russel 35:23

That's great. I mean, one- one step at a time really and not getting too consumed with the numbers and say, and I imagine there's a certain amount of fuel, call it revenue, that you need to really be able to step away and that's the next target and goal and, and embracing that and then, you know, figure out more down the

Born Or Made?

Russel 35:38

road. Well, one last big question for you then, Julia. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?

Julia 35:44

Oh, the classic question. You know, I think it probably depends on the person. For me personally, and we were talking about, again, self- growing self-awareness, every personality test I take is like, "You would be a good entrepreneur." So to me, to me it feels a little bit more like I was born this way. Yeah. Just the brain that I was given, but I'm sure there are other careers or, or other paths I could, see working for someone else where I, I would still be able to exercise my strengths. It's just those opportunities did not present themselves. This-- These are the opportunities that presented themselves and so in that sense, I think I'm uniquely suited to this intrinsically, but it's also a function of just circumstances I came across in life.

Russel 36:38

Very, very grounded, practical approach. I would expect nothing else from you. And, by the way, what you said earlier of being an introvert, I have a hard time believing that. But I also understand as a quasi-introvert somewhere in the middle- Yeah that, uh, I can turn on both things, so maybe that's what I've, I've gotten to experience today. Yeah.

Julia 36:55

I lo- I like I said, I do love connecting with people, and I'll burn out on it. You know? Like, I need to-- When I recover, when I recharge, it's alone. Yeah. But then that gives me the strength to, like, go out and have a great time with other people collaborating, so.

Russel 37:12

I think that is honestly, the misnomer about introverts is that they actually do enjoy connecting with people. They just like that in the right doses at the right time with the right people and, so that makes- Yeah total

Where To Find Julia Online

Russel 37:24

sense. Well, if people wanna know more about Wheelhorse Web and your journey, where can they go?

Julia 37:31

You can find us at wheelhorse-web.com. Now, I will say the tractor company still owns Wheel- or, you know, the ch- you may find tractors if you search Wheelhorse. Fair. Wheelhorse-web.com. Wheelhorse Web on Instagram or on Facebook, and you can find me on LinkedIn, Julia Wilk. Um, yeah. All right. And I'd love to connect with

Russel 37:51

folks. Great. Well, we'll have all those links on the blog post when this goes live. So folks, you can go there to agencystory.com, click on Podcast, and find the latest and greatest information about Julia and her journey. And my gosh, Julia, what a fun conversation today. I have so many notes of things I wanted to talk about, but the highlights of just remembering that what got you here won't get you there, the power of redundancy, and the practicality of finding a problem and creating a solution as you go about your positioning journey, but just opening up all the, the fun and hardworking parts of your leadership journey, and always the power of coach- coaching and being someone else's guide, and having that for yourself. Really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us today.

Julia 38:36

Thank you so much for having me. This was super fun. It's always easy to talk to you. I, I'd say- Well- you have a gift for that I

Russel 38:43

appreciate that. Pleasure was all mine. Thank you for listening to An Agency Story podcast, where every story helps you write your own. Subscribe, share, and join us again for more real stories, lessons learned, and breakthroughs ahead. What's next? You'll want to visit agencystory.com/podcast and follow us on Instagram @anagencystory for the latest updates.

What is a Wheelhorse?

Julia 39:08

This is an interesting story, actually. So at first, when I started my business, I was in the subtitling, I was doing some additional editing and translation work. So I called my business Word and Web. Sometimes I extended it Word and Web Works, and it had the www, and I thought that was cute. anyway, as time went on, it, it was became very clear that it was, like, much heavier on the web and tech side than the editing and, um- Mm-hmm what I had been doing before. So, and also, it- I wanna say it was maybe five years into my business. It's been almost 10 years now. Um, I had started to grow a team at that point, and it started to feel like Word and Web was, like, Julia's thing, and now we need to have a new brand that's, like, the team. So I actually went through a naming process. Like, I had a marketing consultant- Oh, wow help me. We sent surveys to our clients, and like, "How do you see us?" Like, "What are we good at?" Like, "What do you like about us?" And went through this whole thing, brainstorming, all the... And then, at the end of the process, I think we had a few front runners. And I, I think I already felt pretty strongly like Wheelhorse Web was gonna be the one. Partly, you know, Word and Web had the WW. I had kind of found it through. Wheelhorse, it's like a sort of a political term. It's sort of a farm term. Like, there's a tractor called Wheel Horse tractors. And, um- Did not know all of

Russel 40:32

this.

Julia 40:33

Yeah. Wheelhorse is, um... Like, back in the day, if you have your team of horses pulling a carriage, right? Mm-hmm. And this is still, like, draft horses. The horses closest to the wheel need to be the strongest horses. They're... The lead horse is, like, the pretty boy, and the wheel horse is, like, the powerhouse. And I really loved that That sense of like that really is kind of feels like who I am and who I wanna be for my clients. And also, like the services that we are able to offer together were like very much like we're in the nitty-gritty back end, and we're gonna make sure it's a well-oiled machine back there. So it just had all these layers of stuff that I liked about it, but I was having a tough time, Russel, committing. I was having like a fear of commitment situation, like- That,

Russel 41:17

that seems natural for a naming process.

Julia 41:20

So I was thinking about it one day. I lived on a brook at the time, and I was like cleaning a window in my apartment. The paper tower- towel fell out of the window. This is gonna sound like such a woo-woo story, but, and I'm not- This is, no, this is

Russel 41:34

great. I'm learning history. I'm learning- It's, yeah. I'm just, I'm learning left and right, so keep going.

Julia 41:41

The, this is a true story. The w- like, uh, paper towel fell out of the window onto like the sh- the rocky shore of the brook, and I was like, "Oh, God." So I go outside and I like go to pick it up, and in the mud there was this like shiny object, and I pulled it out and I am not joking, it was like a flat little piece of metal, a circle that had a horse on it, like a Pegasus. And I was like, like had just been trying to make this decision like right at the same time, and I was like, "Okay, this is like too..." This like, if this was in a movie, this would be like cheesy. I think I should just do it. I think that this is it, and I always liked the fact that I had like this physical object too that was like reminding me of this new path forward. And, um, yeah, that's my like- Okay weird universe, universe sign that I decided to listen to.