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Building an Agency with No Employees, with LaunchTeam’s Jesse Tevelow – Episode 52.

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Last updated Dec 1, 2023

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Building an Agency with No Employees, with LaunchTeam’s Jesse Tevelow – Episode 52.

Last updated Dec 1, 2023 | 0 comments

Parakeeto

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Can you imagine building an agency, to over eight figures in revenue, with zero employees? It is possible. Founder and CEO of LaunchTeam, plus founding partner at BlockTeam VenturesJesse Tevelow – built an entirely remote, service-based business with no full-time employees. Zip. Nada. Diddly squat… Wanna find out how?! Read on.


About Jesse Tevelow, Founder of LaunchTeam:

This is the mother of all intros… you ready? *John Cena background music optional* Jesse Tevelow is the founder and CEO of LaunchTeam – a collective of expert consultants who launch books, sites, apps, courses, events podcasts, and entire companies. He’s also a founding partner at BlockTeam Venture, which focuses on strategic investment fund blockchain, DLT, and emerging tech. To date, he’s helped clients raise over $500 million dollars in venture funding. As well as being alumni of TechStars – where he built and exited his gaming company PlayQ – Jesse also now acts as a mentor to others moving up the entrepreneurial ladder.


Points of Interest…

  • Outlining the premise behind LaunchTeam 1:40
  • Operational structure of a company like LaunchTeam 6:27
  • Don’t fear “giving away” your value 11:57
  • How LaunchTeams‘ Growth Summit can help you 16:24
  • Key Takeaway – pay attention to your brand!


The Premise Behind LaunchTeam

Firstly, I asked Jesse to explain, in his own words, what he’s building at LaunchTeam, the premise behind it – especially in light of his background of building and exiting companies – and why exactly he’s now helping people launch products. His response?

LaunchTeam is essentially your ‘go-to’ market experts. So, there you go. Boom, done.”

As avid APP readers/listeners should be aware at this point, things are rarely that black and white… except, in this case – it is. One of LaunchTeam‘s clients, Erik Huberman of Hawke Media (whom we’ve spoken to before…) drilled Jesse regarding the importance of a snappy tagline and keeping things simple.

So, what has being “the ‘go-to’ market experts” entailed for LaunchTeam thus far?

“We’ve launched over 50 products for clients, and those companies have raised over 500 million. So, over half a billion dollars… We do best-selling book launches, and so on. Essentially, we create these small communities – called LaunchTeams – and we’re purely based on relationships. We’re not a technology company, rather a relationship company that uses technology. We’re very focused on humanity, focused on relationships, and focused on connections.”

In essence, these little communities comprise of an expert hub – including expert partners, expert consultants, agency owners – all of whom are willing to help others launch things. And, ladies and gennelmen, this has proven to be a fiercely compelling and accessible way to scale a company.

Operational Structure of a Company Like LaunchTeam

So, Jesse managed to build a company with basically a distributed network of other experts. I bet you’re wondering just what LaunchTeam actually looks like from a structural perspective. How does Jesse get that project worked on without necessarily having a team of employees or contractors?

The answer is literally thinking outside the box – don’t stimy yourself with rigidity. With this in mind, Jesse refers to LaunchTeam as “a fluid mesh network of talent. ”

“We’re all really good at stuff. Just make sure that this is the best of the best, the top 1%, and get this mesh network to do what we want it to do – so that everybody wins… there are lots of interesting technologies – BlockChain, fragmentation of works, and decentralized technology – that can aid these things to happen. And I think we’re at the right time for that to happen.”

In fact, Jesse and his cohorts at LaunchTeam are ahead of the curve when it comes to this model of rewarding talent and then allowing that talent to then do what it wants to do so that that talent keeps coming back.

You’re here to learn, therefore, I’m going to attempt to break this creative whirlwind of symbiosis down thusly…

  • Cultivate a network of highly-talented experts in your field
  • Ask them to get involved in projects
  • Your collective expertise will fill the functions necessary to deliver the required client outcomes
  • The budget is addressed
  • The project is undertaken based on what those economics look like and what the deliverables are

To clarify, there isn’t a slew of people working on projects for LaunchTeam; rather the cream of the crop rises to the top. There is a big focus on quality over quantity. Jesse also brings an extra layer of service by way of added technology platforms that are more self-serve, plus some education products and communities, where he teaches people how to follow the process that he would typically undertake with a client.

When you teach people how to do what you do, this significantly props up the value of what you are providing.

Side note: our Agency Profit Toolkit is a one stop shop for you to be able to outline some of these crucial profitability numbers to a potential buyer. Spreadsheets, templates and training videos, you name it, it’s all in the toolkit. Grab yours free at the link below:

Don’t Fear “Giving Away” Your Value

Keeping with the teaching side of things; is there a process that you can actually teach? If you’re thinking, “Well, why would I teach it – then people won’t hire us!” In fact, the opposite is true.

People will be more inclined to hire you (and willing to pay more) because they’ll get to experience the breadth of how much expertise you have, plus how much goes into what you do, and – most importantly – how well-executed your processes are.

“I always say, ‘Give away your value, give it away, just keep giving it away.’ And people go, ‘Why? What do you mean?!’… All it’s going to do is help the people who do want to pay you, come and pay you, because – guess what – tere are different types of currency. There’s relationship currency, there’s credibility currency, and authority currency. They’re all valuable, right? Dollars and cents are just one form.”

This plays into my personal philosophy of “If done well, your marketing should serve more people than your product ever does.” I think that’s the philosophy behind this Agency Profit Podcast.

How LaunchTeam‘s Growth Summit Can Help You

For those thinking about launching a podcast, or a book, or a speaking engagement, or a new company, or a new service offering in 2021, LaunchTeam has a really interesting event coming up that I think would be great for them to check out. Or, to quote Jesse…

“We have an amazing conference coming up on the 25th of January – the last week of the month, running from Monday through Friday. Growth Summit is THE biggest thing we’ve done as a company since our inception five-plus years ago. This conference is basically the culmination of everything we’ve done and all the relationships we’ve built.”

And what an impressive range of relationships LaunchTeam has cultivated. Among the 30+ experts talking at the week-long event, there are a host of names, including Hawke Media‘s Erik Huberman, Foundry‘s Brad Feld, plus Leonard Armato of Management Plus Enterprises – who built Shaq‘s entire brand and was also involved in Oscar De La Hoya‘s brand and therefore responsible for over a billion dollars in value creation.

In short, if you’re an agency owner or entrepreneur of any kind, Growth Summit will have value for you. From talking tracks focussing on marketing, peak performance, and health, to workshops featuring Typeform, LeadPages and SO much more. The really cool thing is that it’s happening inside the LaunchTeam platform.

Tickets retail in the region of $50-$100, but it’s all free for YOU – because Jesse’s sound and reckons me and my APP advocates are bomb! You are welcome.


Key Takeaway… Pay Attention To Your Brand

If you’re someone trying to build out a company, pay attention to your brand. Pay attention to what it is you do, and how it makes you different. Then, go talk about it – everywhere. That’s where it comes back to “thought leadership” and the idea of launching a podcast, or launching a book, in order to create that thought leadership.

If you’re curious about Thought Leadership, go check out conversations we had with Blair Enns (Win Without Pitching with Blair Enns – Episode 15) and David C. Baker (How to Become an ‘Expert’ Agency with David C. Baker – Episode 48), who wrote The Business of Expertise. In our chat with David, he discusses the importance of having a platform for your thought leadership, whether it be a podcast or a book, or speaking at web summits, and building authority through that.

Remember, there is a BIG difference between giving your time away for free and dispensing your expert advice. One pays off in the long run, the other, not so much.

In fact, “past me” really could have done with having access to LaunchTeam’s Growth Summit before I launched this here APP… luckily for you, there’s a free pass waiting for you below – get on it!


See more from Bestselling Author Jesse Tevelow

Did you learn anything new from this episode with Jesse Tevelow? Let us know in the comments below – feedback is king! Our next installment of #APP, on January 27th, will see us chat with Trent Dyrsmir. While our previous blog with Vince D’Eletto is over here


Agency Profitability Tool Kit

If you’re looking for more resources to help you improve your agency’s profitability, check out the Agency Profitability Tool Kit. It’s full of the same templates and checklists we’ve used with consulting clients to help them improve profitability by over 100% – in under 60 days.

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