Mentorship, Global Talent, Golden Handcuffs, and Hunters vs Farmers – Kasim Aslam on Agency Scaling

“All of my successes massively outpace my capabilities. Like when you meet me, you're like, ‘I can't believe that guy did all the shit that he did’. Because I look homeless and I'm not really as bright as I pretend to be. I'm not self-deprecating—it's a fact. My success outpaces my capability because I found other people that were more capable than me."

Kasim Aslam is the CEO of Solutions 8, co-founder of Driven Mastermind, and co-host of the Perpetual Traffic podcast. He has built four multi-million dollar agencies and had two exits, one of which was an eight-figure deal. Kasim's success in the agency world, particularly in the Google Ads space, and his ability to scale businesses with minimal initial capital make him an impressive figure in the industry.

He’s also one of the most energetic and insightful guests the Agency Journey podcast has seen thus far.

This episode will be a perfect listen for agency owners and entrepreneurs looking to remove themselves from the business, identify and keep their most valuable team members, and build the mindset that will take your operation to the next level.

Kasim shared a whirlwind of inspiration, including but not limited to: the crucial differences between employees (farmers) and entrepreneurs (hunters); the power of offering equity to top performers; the importance of hiring people who can outperform you in their roles; and the benefits of seeking out hard challenges for personal and professional growth.

Episode Insights:

💡 Seeking a business mentor can provide valuable guidance and support in personal and professional growth.
💡 Asking for help is essential and should not be seen as a sign of weakness. But you need to be humble and willing to do the hard work for others to decide to help you.
💡 Seek out hard things for the sake of doing hard things.
💡 People are the most important aspect of agency operations and can be the key differentiator in a competitive market. Incentivize and retain peak performers by offering profit share equity.
💡 Surround yourself with people who are smarter and more capable than you in their respective roles to build a successful agency.
💡 AI is a force multiplier of people—which can be both good and bad, making people even more important in business.
💡 Understand that employees (farmers) and entrepreneurs (hunters) have different motivations and expectations, and build your business model accordingly.
💡 Tying employee compensation directly to their output and the value they bring to the agency can help balance growth and profitability.
💡 Success often outpaces an individual's capabilities because of the power of finding and cultivating talented people.

Resourced Mentioned:

📚 "No Locked Doors" by Gregory Smith
📚 "You Versus Google" by Kasim Aslam
📚 "Driven" by Douglas Brackmann and Randy Kelley
🏢 Driven Mastermind, co-founded by Kasim Aslam 
🏢 Solutions 8, Kasim's agency that he recently sold
🏢 Pareto Talent, Kasim's new venture focused on finding and training executive assistants and other roles for entrepreneurs
🎙️ Perpetual Traffic, co-hosted by Kasim Aslam
👤 Gregory Smith, Kasim's long-time business mentor
👤 Erik Huberman, founder of Hawke Media 

Action list for agency leaders based on the insights from this episode:

• Identify your top performers who are disproportionately contributing to the agency's success. Consider offering them profit sharing or equity to incentivize and retain them.
• Hire people who can perform roles at 80% of your capability, and get yourself out of those roles to focus on higher-level work.
• Actively seek out hard challenges, both in business and personal life, as a way to grow and develop resilience.
• Expand your hiring pool globally, especially in regions like Latin America, to find high-quality talent at more affordable rates.
• Recognize that people are the most critical asset in your agency, even as AI becomes more prevalent. Focus on finding and cultivating exceptional individuals.
• Embrace the pursuit of success and wealth, not just for personal gain, but for the impact and change you can create in the world.
• Develop perseverance and stay committed to your goals, even in the face of challenges and setbacks.

On finding and incentivizing top performers 

"Find peak performers, incentivize peak performers to be peak performers and incentivize peak performers to stay. Oftentimes that means profit share equity, which I believe in very strongly. So if you're trying to keep all the money to yourself, then you're gonna have a hard time keeping those people. But if you're willing to be generous, those people are force multipliers. And they're not worth 20% more, 30% more, 40% more. They're worth five to 10 times."

On hiring yourself out of roles

"Especially when it comes to your highest level work, what I see a lot of entrepreneurs do is they start holding. Sales is really good example. They start holding on to certain roles, because they realize that nobody's ever going to be able to perform to the degree that they're going to be able to perform. Now, that might not necessarily mean that somebody can't be a better salesperson than you. I disagree with that. But it will mean that they're not gonna work the hours that you'll work or go to the lengths that you'll go. That's no longer a proficiency issue. That's like a capacity or depth issue. The issue with that is if you have to do any of the work, your agency is non-scalable. You have a non-scalable agency.

"It's a flawed model from an entrepreneurial perspective. As long as somebody is able to do 80% of what you can do, replace yourself. Get out of the org chart, get off of the assembly line. You should not be necessary to your business. As a matter of fact, until you are unnecessary to your business, you don't have a business, you have a job. A business needs to function without you."

On seeking out hard challenges

"Go seek out the thing that's hard. Go find it, you know? And then just, and honestly, it sounds maybe a little naive or possibly sadomasochistic, but do things for the sake of doing hard things. You know what I mean? Climbing Everest, that's hard. There's no real benefit to that. You get to see the top of the mountain, you get a pretty view, but it's just hard. Go do that, go do that for yourself. Like, what a gift. And I think hard is a gift. And I think every trauma you've ever experienced is a gift."

On hiring globally

"I think that one of the biggest mistakes that we're making in North America and Western Europe is assuming the only people that are capable of doing high value work are in North America or Western Europe. I don't know if it's as bad in Europe, but I can tell you in the States, they like to outsource, but they only do BPO. They only do grunt work. It's like, oh, you can do data entry, you can do research, you can do cold calling, cold outreach, whatever. And it's such hubris to think that we're the only smart people in the world."

On AI and the importance of people

"AI is going to multiply the impact of your good people and multiply the impact of your bad people. So people become more important as AI becomes more important. You may need less of them, but you need more of the good ones. So focus on finding and cultivating amazing people."

On pursuing success and wealth

"I'd like to find people that are looking to really go for the gold. We've been taught that it's almost dirty to want more. And I'd like to reverse that. I want to be a billionaire. I want a liquid billion dollars. And when I get a billion, I want 10. And when I get 10, I want 100. And when I get 100, I want to be a trillionaire. And I want other people that are... Dude, I drive a 40 year old Honda. It's not about the money. It's about the things that you can do with it and the impact and the access and the power and the—like, we can change the world!"

On perseverance

"So much of this game is just being the last person standing, just staying in the cold tub the longest. It's not the smartest or the strongest that win. I think it's the ones that persevere. So keep going."

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