How do you set the ethos of your entire business just from its name?

Sam Fenton-Elstone is CEO & Co-Founder at Anything is Possible. He’s grown his agency to 65 people in just 6 years, winning almost 40 awards along the way.

In this episode, Sam shares how he:

• Embeds the idea that ‘life is better when anything is possible’ across every aspect of the business
• Gets the right balance between having structure and boundaries, and granting autonomy
• Sets the business up so autonomous team members can make good decisions as quickly as possible - and so the business benefits from collective intelligence
• Constantly strives to build a better, more exciting, more inclusive agency compared to the norm
• Runs the business like a university with a disproportionate spend on L&D and a strong Alumni network
• Encourages everyone to push themselves forward in a way that’s right for them - enabling the team to collectively operate at their highest possible output

Sam isn’t interested in Anything is Possible becoming a big agency. Instead, he wants them to be a great agency with everyone doing their best ever work whilst there.

How do you maintain an entrepreneurial spirit in a global marketing agency?

Ian Millner is Co-Founder & Global Chair at Iris, a business he started 25 years ago and which he’s helped grow to 1000 people across 17 countries.

In this episode, Ian shares how he:

• Achieved the right balance between enjoying the journey and heading towards a shared destination
• Brought together the right team with the right chemistry at the very start - which naturally attracted clients
• Created a shared ownership structure to drive motivation and loyalty within the team (peaking at 50 shareholders)
• Allowed people to follow their passions and dreams by backing their ideas for new ventures and opening in new locations
• Created a sense of excitement and being together on a big caper within the business
• Navigated taking outside investment and the impact this had on culture

Ian humbly talks about his incredible journey, how it unfolded, and what he did to get his team to be high-performing.

How do you create and maintain a culture to enable happy and high-performing teams?

Jane Slimming is Founder and CEO of Zeal. She’s been running the agency for 14 years.

In this episode, Jane shares how she:

• Defined their values on day #1 and consistently embeds these into everything they do
• Allows people to progress their careers based on their unique factors of success
• Is very transparent about business performance, no matter how badly they’re doing
• Gets people to disagree with her and then actively praises them when correct to do so
• Launched the Zeal Bucket List to push people out of their comfort (and make their personal dreams come true)
• Spearheaded Zeal to win the award for Best Agency Culture

Jane was a great podcast guest with a lot of ‘zeal’. Her quote about what’s worse than having a hole in the team is truly memorable!