Hello, hello, hello, friend!

And welcome back to First Class Operations!

This is your Captain Kuba speaking.

I’m back from Portugal, as is the rest of the ZenPilot team.

It was super awesome. Here, have a post with some pics.

Everyone on the team can feel a renewed energy after getting to meet in person. We got clear on where we’re going with our mission, and made plans on how we’re going to get there.

My piece of the puzzle remains similar as before: telling the ZenPilot story and getting the word out about what we’re doing.

And, of course, sharing killer content for agency operators. Which is what we’ll do here today.

Got some event invites, pod episodes, and new guides to share with you, so—as my favorite PAW Patrol member would say—”let’s dive in!”.

The soundtrack for this edition of First Class Operations is Fragments of Time by Daft Punk. I played this in Portugal to open our slightly-more-fancy dinner party on our last night. Not to brag, but I think I did a killer job as ‘designated trip DJ’ in general.

(What’s that you say? You want a full playlist of the songs we played in Portugal to keep the vibes on point? Well, here’s the #ZenPilotPortugal playlist for you then. Enjoy.)

Captain's Address

🤜🤛 The virtues of work companions.

Working alongside other Pilots IRL was super energizing. 

In fact, it made me realize how much I miss this kind of companionship during my regular routine remote work.

So I made a new commitment: I’m going to ‘hang out’ with my team members online a lot more.

I didn’t know if they would be open to it, but I managed to convince a few team members to try it.

It’s not a complicated process. It all happens in a chat window.

We share a plan for the day with each other. Then we motivate each other throughout the day to push a little harder. Stuff like:

💪 get this task done before lunch;

💪 finally get over the emotional hurdle to send that email;

💪 pinky promise not to check Slack for X amount of time to get a chance to properly focus.

It’s a fairly new experiment, but it seems to be working for now.

Part of it is the accountability, sure. But what I wanted the most is to attract a little more of that ‘we’re in this together, working side by side’ energy that we had so much of in Portugal.

That energy makes all the difference.

So I ask you: do you have work companions? Someone to push you, someone that you can push?

Maybe it’s time to hop in a chat window with a coworker or a friend and turn your work into something a bit more social.

If you’ve tried this and have thoughts to share, I’d love to hear about it in a reply!

In-Flight Announcement

🗓️ Two webinars!

We’re running webinars this week and the next—one will see the return of Gray as a presenter after a long break! Don’t miss it.

[Webinar invite] Find and Fix Your Agency Profitability Leaks with Gray MacKenzie

Do you know the math that runs the agency business?

Do you know which elements in the agency profitability equation have the most impact on its final outcome—i.e. your bottom line?

What are the best levers you can pull to slash your costs and drastically change your profit margins?

You may already be tracking your profitability data—but are you hitting the benchmarks that other similar agencies are hitting?

Because if not, there's money to be made catching up to the top 1% of agencies who figured out a better balance of productivity, profitability, and team health.

Our very own Gray MacKenzie will tell you all about it during our webinar on June 18th.

I often mention that ZenPilot has helped over 3,000 agencies streamline their operations…

…but bear in mind roughly 1,800 of those were business makeovers that Gray had a personal hand in.

So he knows what he’s talking about.

Come to our webinar to get the tools you need to analyze how your agency makes and loses money—which will allow you to nail down the inefficiencies and waste that are hurting your profit margins.

👉 Sign up here.

✨

[Webinar reminder] Account Management Mastery: Creating Happy Long-Term Profitable Clients in 5 Easy Steps (with Taylor McMaster, DOT & Co.)

This one is happening just two days from now!

On June 13th, Taylor McMaster, founder of DOT & Company, will teach you standards of excellence in the area of account management for agencies.

Taylor will present an exact process for account management that you can apply to your unique agency and its needs.

You'll learn:

• Why agencies can't afford to get account management wrong;
• How DOT & Co's 4-Pillar Account Management Framework has worked within hundreds of agencies;
• How Taylor and her team structure Account Management Departments for success (and what roles to hire for)

Install Taylor’s process and you’ll be on the path to happy clients, glowing reviews, referrals, all that good stuff.

👉 Sign up here.

In-Flight Magazine

🛫 New from ZenPilot

Here’s our latest content for you to enjoy. If the list seems a little slim, don’t worry—we’ll be ramping up a lot now that we’re back from our little trip 😉

Podcasts:

• [Agency Journey] Systematized Networking, Quick Revenue Wins, and Becoming the Hub and Spoke with Kurt Schmidt. Kurt was such a great guest on the show, bringing in lots of experience in the art of growing pipeline for agencies, as well as a treasure trove of tactics specifically for business networking. If you want to get good at either of these things, I recommend you listen to this one. You should connect with Kurt on LinkedIn too—he takes networking seriously so he’s a great person to have in your contact list.
• [Podcast Feature – Eternal Optimist Podcast] Why Dropping Your Dreams Can Lead to Greater Success with Gray MacKenzie. In this podcast, Gray shares how he has personally and professionally evolved, detailing his identity shift from a high school athlete to a resilient business leader. He also talks about identity crises, leveraging faith, learning from past challenges, maintaining clarity, setting realistic expectations, and building a culture of accountability.

Videos from our YouTube channel:

• What's the ROI of Working With ZenPilot? You know what we do: help agencies and other service-based businesses install the right processes, tools, and habits to achieve gold-standard operations. But how much money would that actually save you if you decided to work with our team? Gray dives deep into what you stand to gain and lays it all out using a special tool we call the Agency Operator Scorecard.

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:

• Mariya Delano: "You don't need more brand awareness." 
• Mac Reddin 🦕 on the benefits of owning an emoji. 
• Kieran Flanagan shares an uncomfortable take: creators are better than marketers at generating attention. And he shares a masterclass of grabbing and keeping attention from the meteorically growing YouTuber Jenny Hoyos.
• Jay Clouse: "Your information diet is your competitive advantage." 

🧑‍✈️ From within ZenPilot:

• 🧑‍🏫 Jeff Cypher shared a special teaser: for the first time in ZP history, we're considering selling our library of 200+ agency-specific ClickUp templates separately from the rest of our offering. If you want to get your hands on the legendary ZP Process Library, show your support under this post.
• 🤹 Maggie McClure shared a pic and a thought from our off-site in Portugal.
• 🕵🏻 Aimee Pablo shared some pics too. 

🎸 And from yours truly:

• My thoughts + pics from the off-site, particularly on the different sides of your teammates that you discover on a trip like this. 
• I'm looking for interesting tight-knit online communities, particularly in the agency space. If you know any, leave a comment under this post—I also shared some communities I already recommend there.

And that's it for this edition of First Class Operations!

One question for you before you go though…

We’re planning our content calendar for the second half of the year. What guides/content would you like to see from us?

And how have you been? Let me know in an email reply. Or add me on LinkedIn and let’s chat.