Why Your Senior Team Isn’t Getting You Out of the Weeds
OTTESU
57:21
How to structure the team so that you get out of firefighting, and back to running the agency.
You built a senior team so you could step back. Yet you're still pulled into client problems, people problems, and the day-to-day admin you thought you'd left behind, with no time for the work only you can do.
When an agency hits this ceiling, it's rarely because the work isn't good. It's because the structure underneath the founder is broken. We promote our best doers to hold onto them, without ever equipping them to lead. So the middle hollows out, good people burn out and leave, juniors are left without guidance, and the work flows back up to the person with the least time to absorb it.
In this session, Sam Wood (OTTESU) and Mai Aristoteli (School of Agency) work through why this happens, the real causes behind it, and a practical way to redesign roles and responsibilities so your senior team can actually run the agency, without hiring another layer or restructuring from scratch.
You'll leave with a clear, sequenced approach you can start next Monday.
Speakers
Mai Aristoteli
Founder @ School of Agency
Mai Aristoteli is the founder of School of Agency, a specialist training and coaching practice that helps agency people grow across Australia. A former agency leader with 20 years of experience at network and independent agencies including M&C Saatchi and McCann Worldgroup, she equips practitioners at every level with the essential "agency life skills" - client and account management, people leadership, business development, and operations. Mai works closely with agency teams to build the capability and confidence they need to do great work and progress in their careers.
Sam Wood
Founder @ OTTESU
Sam Wood GAICD is the founder of OTTESU, a consultancy working with independent agencies across Australia on strategy, operations, and governance. He spent more than a decade running and growing agencies, including serving as CEO and co-owner, and now advises dozens of agency founders while also contributing at board level, including with Aruga and Kidsafe NSW. Sam combines hands-on commercial experience with formal governance training to help agency leaders make better decisions and build more resilient businesses.
Replays
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57:21