Hello, hello, hello, friend!

And welcome back to First Class Operations!

Woe is me! Spooktober has been over for a while now and I totally forgot to make the previous edition of FCO a Halloween one.

But if (like me) you don’t want Spook Season to be gone just yet, you can keep the goosebumps going with my top three horror podcasts: 1. The Magnus Archives. 2. The White Vault. 3. Malevolent. Give them a listen and enjoy!

In the meantime, here’s some more hand-picked content to make you a better agency operator, including:

👉 Settling the ClickUp vs. Slack debate

👉 Building an internal wiki in ClickUp

👉 Running productive meetings in ClickUp

👉 How to create better video case studies

👉 Tips for managing organizational change

👉 And more!

Let’s dig in.

The soundtrack for this edition of First Class Operations is a little track called Hoodoo Sorcerer from the Rayman 3 soundtrack. My favorite spooky silly earworm. You can listen to it and imagine Halloween ain’t over, like me.

Captain's Address

⏳ The simple joy of timers (and basics in general)

It’s super annoying how the simplest solutions are often the best.

You want there to be some sort of magic, convoluted, AI-driven, highly automated solution to productivity woes…

…but the true answer seems to be just consistently applying common sense advice without getting lost in the sauce.

Just one example:

⏳

Recently, I’ve been rediscovering the simple joy of working with a timer. 

What is it about timers that makes the human brain work so differently? 🧠

As I write this, a 10-minute timer is running in the background.

And suddenly, just because I have this (fake, self-inflicted) urgency…

…I’m way more resistant to distractions. And I’m pushing myself to write not just well, but fast and well.

Hell, just the other day I only had a stopwatch running in the background...

…and even that was enough to push me into “time attack!” mode and get me focused.

⏳

So if you’re an overthinker like me, here’s your call to action:

Go back to the basics this week.

Timers. Starting small. Setting goals for the day. Taking breaks. Silencing notifications. Getting enough sleep!

Seems like this advice is so often repeated for a reason. Sigh.

⏳

Oh, and to improve your agency operations, how about we set a timer for 30 minutes sometime soon for you to have a call with our team and get your project management issues diagnosed?

Just so you can run an agency that’s both more profitable and easier to step away from for a vacation.

Give it some thought!

In-Flight Announcement

🗓️ Live stream next Wednesday!

The ZenPilot events train is picking up steam again... Here's the first event we've got lined up for you. News on more soon; the year is far from over yet!

🗓️ [Live stream invite] Slack vs. ClickUp: Stop burying critical conversations in the wrong tool

200+ reactions on LinkedIn can’t be wrong.

That’s the level of response our AM Team Lead Maggie got when she posted “❌ You've got to act like Slack doesn't exist anymore” on LinkedIn the other day.

The discussion in the comments was lively:

❓ Does this mean there’s no room for Slack conversations at all?

❓ Where is the line between a chat that’s appropriate for Slack vs. ClickUp?

❓ What about ClickUp notifications getting lost in the noise? What are the optimal settings there?

Naturally, as ever when we see questions in need of answering…

…we decided to put on our professor hats and run a live stream about it!

On Wednesday, November 15th, I’ll be going live with Maggie to dive deep into the areas of responsibility of Slack vs. ClickUp—especially focusing on over-relying on Slack and how that undermines your teams’ efficiency.

👉 Sign up for the stream to join us live and ask your questions!

In-Flight Magazine

🛫 New from ZenPilot: Podcasts, blogs, and videos

This edition is mainly about out bread-and-butter: tons and tons of ClickUp use cases and guides to save you tons of time and keep all your work in one system.

New podcasts and live streams:

• [Agency Journey] Video Case Studies, Writing a Business Book, and Running a Partnership Program with Ian Garlic
• [ZenPilot Live Show replay] Live demo: An easy way to run EOS in ClickUp (feat. Jeff Cypher)

New blogs:

• How to Create an Internal Wiki in ClickUp
• Stop Leaking Money: Gain Clear Visibility Into Utilization and Profitability Using ClickUp Data
• How to Avoid a Failed Project Management Migration—the Step-by-Step Guide (feat. Derek Harvey)

From the ZenPilot YouTube channel—two Jeff videos:

• How to Create an Internal Wiki in ClickUp
• How to Run More Productive Meetings in ClickUp 

And two client stories:

• Drupal Development Agency Increases Team Efficiency With Standardized ClickUp Structure with Duncan Davidson, CEO of Rohallion
• HubSpot Platinum Partner Improves Capacity Planning With the Agency Operator Blueprint with Omi Diaz-Cooper, Co-Founder of Diaz & Cooper Advertising

On The Radar

🧠 Content from the ZenPilot network

Here’s some inspiration from our Pilots and other places on the web.

🌐 From outside of ZenPilot:

• MJ Smith on what to say to your customers to put them at ease during a case study interview.
• A lot of y’all have interview-based podcasts. This one from Liam Moroney is for you: how to elevate your guest-led podcast above the rest and avoid creating “a terrible experience for both guest and listener”.
• In a similar vein, I know some of y’all want to find more speaking opportunities. Do you have video of your previous work though? Jay Acunzo explains the hierarchy of video needs to book speeches.
• Dave Gerhardt: “LinkedIn is the # 1 PR channel for startups and founders today”.
• Todd Clouser (an awesome+hilarious marketer—you may know him as The Worst Marketer in the World) dropped his content planning worksheet on LinkedIn, along with an exact process to follow for content planning for 2024. I especially like the unique concepts he uses like Type 1/2/3 Content or Middle-Out Content.

From within ZenPilot:

✨ Maggie:

• Is coining a new (soon-to-be-trending) hashtag: #GetYourClickTogether.
• On how to drive change management across the whole org, not just with the decision makers. 
• On the uncomfortable truth about what agency owners miss when it comes to their own organization’s operations.
• Maggie tackles the age-old question: “When you don't know the answer to something but you're expected to, what do you say?”

⚾ Gray:

• Got 50+ reactions on this here post about profitability reporting.
• What are your can't-miss events/conferences? Gray is looking for suggestions.

🧑‍🏫 Jeff:

• On ClickUp’s Quote feature—a little thing that makes a big difference.
• Jeff’s 7 rules for managing organizational change.
• His #1 tip for agency operators.
• “An amazing ClickUp automation that'll make your delivery team 10x more proactive.” (Loom video included!)

🎸 Yours truly:

• Happy to report I’ve had some podcast appearances!
• Branding and communication expert Eloise Leeson had me on her new pod Next Level Communications to talk about authenticity, teaching- vs. reporting-driven content, and discovering your personal values.
• Have you heard of contentfolks by content marketer extraordinaire Fio Dossetto? She’s now started a podcast (also called contentfolks) sharing the behind-the-scenes lives of content marketers. I shared about the most important T-shirt in my wardrobe; Toastmasters speech contests; and a special pesto-based family sandwich recipe.
• On ZenPilot’s 4X Clarity Guarantee.

One question for you before you go though…

What did you think of this edition? What would you like to see more/less of in this newsletter? I’m super happy whenever I get messages from y’all so don’t hesitate to hit reply on this.

Looking forward to hearing from you!