"Realise that you need your staff just as much as you think they need you"
Meet Charlie Clark– A 30-year-old Account Director & Founder at Minty Digital – Digital Marketing Agency based in UK and Spain. Minty Digital helps in-house marketing teams integrate SEO into their existing marketing strategy to drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.
After working in-house for a nationwide company he often came across a number of issues working with Agencies such as poor communication, lack of transparency, and unclear strategies. After feeling disheartened with his experiences he decided to start his own agency and make a promise not to prioritize the quality of profit. 5 years later they’ve built their team to 15 staff and have a number of great clients working with them.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to Valiant CEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Charlie Clark: We help in-house marketing teams integrate SEO into their existing marketing strategy to drive more traffic, leads, and revenue . We position ourselves as an additional ‘bolt on’ to Marketing Managers usually overstretched departments (usually working on their own) offering them access to:
- – Technical SEO
- – Link Building
- – Content Marketing
- – Digital PR
Alongside the services we offer we also pride ourselves on the following:
- – Offering marketing Strategies that deliver them the results they need to achieve their organizational targets ( no SEO packages!)
- – Experts in their field who can provide the right solutions for the revenue-driving goals.
- – Access to a team of young, knowledgeable and fun team members they can work with day by day.
- – Ability to help grow their companies and make sure their bosses are giving them the praise they deserve.
Who has been the most influential person(s) in your life and how did they impact you? How did that lead to where you are today?
Charlie Clark: In regards to business development, the CEO of a worldwide Agency called Jellyfish.com has definitely helped me move in the right direction. I initially came into the Agency world with not much experience working in an Agency, so by picking the brain of someone who manages a team of 2000+ was one of the best choices I could have made!
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, particularly for businesses. How did the pandemic impact your business? Please list some of the problems that you faced, and how you handled them.
Charlie Clark: Problem: Initially losing 50% of our client revenue within 2 weeks.
Solution: Although an initial hit, this allowed us to rethink our approach to business as a whole. Before we were a ‘do it all’ Agency but I came to realize after having some downtime that this was a sure-fire way to burnout/ not being able to provide enough professionalism to each of the services that we offer. By scaling our offering back and offering one core service of SEO, with add-on services of Google Ads and PR we’ve been able to scale back up and make double the profit in 2021 as we did in 2020.
Problem: Fallout from Brexit
Solution: As a UK-based company operating in Spain, we were severely affected by the fallout from the UK leaving the European Union at the end of 2020, with one of the main issues being are loss of free movement. To put it into context, previously we could hire staff directly from the UK and have them move to Spain but now they are only allowed to spend 90 days in the EU without a visa. Our solution was to set up an official Spanish Branch and hire people directly through there. Although it takes longer and is a lot more expensive it’s still nice that we have a solution to this.
The pandemic led to a myriad of cultural side effects, including one that was quite unexpected that is informally known as “The Great Resignation”. Did this widespread trend affect you in any way?
Charlie Clark: No, in fact we’ve not had a single person hand in their notice (at the time of writing this email) in over 2 years. We put this down to our flexibility and high number of benefits we offer our staff.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. How do you feel about this trend? Explain.
Charlie Clark: I’m not surprised, I think pre-pandemic a lot of people were being taken advantage of not only from a fiscal level but also the amount of control that companies have over their employee’s personal life.
I believe people now realise that they don’t have to work for a company that’s taking them for a ride and they can find somewhere which offers them a great combination of work/life balance.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. That can be quite an alarming rate. What advice would you share to increase employee retention?
Charlie Clark: Realise that you need your staff just as much as you think they need you. My number one piece of advice would be ASK your staff what they need and what they want to make their job more enjoyable.
Some of the things we offer to our team now to help keep them motivated are:
- Discounted gym membership
- Finish at 12 Fridays
- 36 days holiday
- Option of working either at home or in office
- If remote, offer an allowance for a coworker
- Therapy sessions
According to a Nature Human behavior study, In 2020, 80% of US workers reported feeling that they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them – a phenomenon known as “time poverty”. What is your take on the work-life balance? Explain.
Charlie Clark: As mentioned before, offering a hybrid approach to work (Yes your staff can take time to do their laundry during work hours) then you’re going to reduce stress and increase productivity all around for your team.
I believe a good work-life balance is essential to maintaining good staff morale and promoting a positive workplace.
A more recent survey by Joblist asked about 3,000 respondents if they’re actively thinking about leaving their job. That survey found that 73% of 2,099 respondents who answered this question on their employment plans are considering quitting. How are you preparing for the future to counter this potentially persistent problem?
Charlie Clark: I believe this was answered on a previous question. In short, realizing that you can’t take advantage of your staff and expect them to work until burnout. You need them more than they need you so have a conversation with them about what they need in order to feel motivated and productive in the workplace.
Thank you for all that, our readers are grateful for your insightful comments! Now, if the Great Resignation isn’t your greatest concern, what is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Charlie Clark: Wearing too many hats. Although things have improved a lot in terms of time management from my side I still find it difficult to delegate and not give myself too many tasks in the day. I’m working with a mentor to get better at this.
Before we finish things off, we do have one last question. If you had $10 Million Dollars to spend in one day, what would you spend it on?
Charlie Clark: I’d put half in the stock market & property. The other half would go to family and charity.
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Charlie Clark for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Charlie Clark or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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