What does it look like to build a business where purpose and performance go hand in hand?
In this episode of The Strategic Business Influencer, Paige Velasquez Budde sat down with Travis McAshan Founder and CEO of GLIDE®, an award-winning digital creative agency and Certified B Corporation based in Austin, Texas. For nearly two decades, Travis has led a purpose-driven team that creates beautiful, high-performing websites for startups, nonprofits, and established brands—all with a mission to make a positive impact in the world.
Here are my top 5 takeaways from my conversation with Travis:
1. Brand is built from the inside out.
Travis believes that a company’s brand isn’t just about logos or messaging, it’s a reflection of its people, purpose, and daily actions. At GLIDE, culture and clarity drive everything, from the way projects are approached to how clients experience the brand.
2. Simplicity is a strategy.
In a world where businesses chase complexity, Travis has built GLIDE on the opposite principle: keep it simple. Whether in web design, client relationships, or leadership, simplicity allows focus, speed, and authenticity to shine through.
3. Leadership is about listening, not control.
Travis shared how his leadership evolved from being the “doer” to becoming a listener and guide. He believes trust and empowerment are at the heart of scaling. When leaders truly listen, they make better decisions and grow stronger teams.
4. Growth isn’t just about more…it’s about better.
For Travis, success isn’t measured by how many clients GLIDE serves, but by the depth of impact. Intentional growth, choosing the right clients, the right projects, and the right pace, has helped his team sustain excellence without burnout.
5. Clarity creates momentum.
One of Travis’s core lessons is that clarity beats hustle. When leaders and teams understand exactly who they are, what they do best, and why it matters, decisions become easier and execution becomes faster. Clarity, he says, is the ultimate competitive advantage.
To learn more about the work Travis and his team are doing, visit https://www.glidedesign.com/
For more upcoming episodes, click “subscribe” to my LinkedIn newsletter. I promise you won’t want to miss these upcoming guests!
Want to dive deeper into how today’s most trusted leaders grow their businesses, brands, and influence? Pre-order my upcoming book, The Strategic Business Influencer, and get the playbook for turning leadership into your most powerful business asset. Below is a transcript of our conversation.
Paige: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Strategic Business Influencer, my new series. For leaders who know that in today’s evolving world, trust is the greatest competitive advantage. My guest today is Travis McAshan, founder and CEO of GLIDE, an award-winning digital creative agency based in Austin, Texas, and a certified B corporation, a designation recognizing companies that meet the highest standards of social and environmental impact.
For nearly two decades, Travis has led a purpose-driven team that designs beautiful, functional, and high performing online experiences for startups, nonprofits, and beloved brands, all with the goal of making a positive impact in the world. Since launching GLIDE in 2003, he has overseen more than 750 projects, grown a diverse team across seven countries, and earned the agency national recognition from Up City Clutch and the Austin Business Journal, and a spot on the Coveted Inc. 5,000 series list of fastest growing private companies in Texas.
A Texas A&M architecture grad – which I will forgive you for one of these days – and serial entrepreneur, Travis is also a dedicated husband, father of four, and active community member. So whether he is serving staff at his church, traveling to meet his global team, or perfecting the Backyard Ninja course, which he built for his family – which I would love to hear about – Travis brings some of the same mix of creativity, discipline, and the heart of everything that he does.
I am so excited to have Travis on this because every time I talk to him, he is sharing some nugget of wisdom. He is a lifelong learner. Um, so I’m just so excited to have you, Travis, welcome on this series.
Travis: Wow. That was, I can you be my like, hype man and just, and come with me to all my sales calls and just start with that introduction because I would close every deal. Um, that was amazing. Thank you. Thank you, Paige. And I’m honored to be here.
Paige: Yeah. Well, I’m excited to get into your story, um, because we come from, you know, somewhat similar worlds, the agency world, and I, I just learned so much from you and what you’ve done with your business.
And so I wanna talk about when you founded GLIDE back in 2003. You know, this is before there were a ton of digital agencies. They’re, you know, they weren’t as common at that point as they are today, and so I’m curious what that origin story is and what made you believe that this was the path that you wanted to commit to for the long haul.
Travis: Yeah. Yeah I’ll try to answer that without going back to the age of four. But it really does honestly start, you know, when I was four years old, I thought I wanted to be a professional architect and a a pro surfer. And so, you know, fast forward to graduating college. I got my degree in architecture, so I missed out on the surfing part.
Um, but I got the degree in architecture and, you know, but interestingly, my senior year of my degree. I just realized that my passion wasn’t for, you know, designing buildings. It was digital and I had been on a computer since the age of 7, 19 85. I re uh, received an Omega 500 from my grandparents. It was like, like the world was open to me, you know, the first multitask computer, 256 colors, deluxe paint.
It was awesome. And so I was, I basically been on a computer every day since the age of seven. And so, you know, I just knew that my path was digital. And so really I just took all of these amazing principles from the digital realm, I mean from the physical realm into the digital realm. One of my favorite, like quotes, the, the shaker philosophy, it’s like, don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful.
But if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful. Mm-hmm. And so there’s just this part of me as an architect, you’re left and right brain and you know, you have to think about. How do you make something structurally sound, but how do you make it beautiful? How do you make it functionally beautiful?
And I just love that ethos. And so as I graduated college, you know, I, I immediately got a job as a graphic designer to college. And it’s funny because I didn’t go to school for graphic design. I went to school, got architecture degree,
Paige: right? And
Travis: so, I mean, I had like the dummies guide to graphic design, like hidden on my desk because I didn’t want my boss to see it.
And so, you know, from there I was teaching myself how to create websites in, in my spare time. Like I would come in early, I would stay in late, I’d be at work until like nine o’clock, the office would be empty. Mm. And I would be teaching myself how to code HTML websites. This was again, back in, in the early two thousands and I think like 2001, 2002.
And and so that was where I kind of cultivated this love for the digital. And when I left that company, I first started a company called Pona, which was kind of like Vimeo, you know, they pivoted toward the business side where YouTube pivoted toward the com consumer side.
Paige: Mm-hmm.
Travis: So Pona was the same kind of concept, but well before Vimeo.
And I think that we were so far ahead of our time that. You know, broadband wasn’t even adopted fully in the United States. We were dealing with dial up connections. Wow. It was just, you know, it’s, that company didn’t work, although it taught me a lot about creativity and user experience and, and then I started GLIDE and so, you know, the really short version of that is just that I was driving home.
From this previous job in Oregon where I had back to my h my home in Austin, I didn’t have a home. I had like my city and my car broke down. And by the time I got back, I, on the way back, I found out that I had no job. My car broke down and I ease up the rest of my money. So when I arrive in Austin, I have no home, no job.
And my bank account is negative $200 and I’m staying with a friend. And that’s how I started GLIDE. So, so I think GLIDE was like ultimately started out of necessity, right? Like, I have to do something, right? I, you know, and so literally walk across the street to the condo of my nab of my friend’s house and ask like, I will draw a stick figure on a piece of paper for $50, like whatever I gotta do.
And that’s what I did. This guy had this slat wall company. And you know, I drew a, I drew a, a mascot for him and he paid me $50. So that was like one of my first deals at GLIDE, which wasn’t, which is funny ’cause it’s not even digital. But anyway, um, you know, that’s, please tell me
Paige: you still have that somewhere.
You know,
Travis: you know what? I actually looked it up on the way back Archive, and it’s Mr. Slatwall and I found him it, I, I turned it into an animated gif where he’s like. He’s like waving his hand side to side like this, you know? Anyway, so it was just this deep desire to serve and, and when I started GLIDE, I read a book pretty early on called Web Design for ROI like back in the early two thousands, and I was like, this is it.
This is what I wanna do. I wanna live my life to be useful for other people. I love the digital realm. And you know, so web design, I created three kind of core tenets for GLIDE, which was kind of our purpose, which is like, I want to create raving fan clients. I read the book by Kim Blanchard raving fans.
I’m like, I want to create raving fans, so raving fans. I wanna make amazing websites and I wanna create tangible, bottom line results. And so we just kind of went to work. You know, doing that, that’s how it all started.
Paige: Wow. I never knew that story. That, that is wild. And you know, what what heart, what hustle, just right from the beginning knowing that, you know, Hey, I’ve, I’ve gotta do something.
And I love that you’re already dropping so many books as well, because I know that’s something you’re such an avid revert reader and lifelong learner. So, yeah. I would love to talk about. You know, GLIDE being this trusted partner that you’ve built for brands and a lot of the brands that you work with have impact at the forefront of what they do.
And so I wanna know how do you earn and keep a high level of trust when you are responsible for. Creating the brand for the repetition of the brand, how, you know, their customers see and perceive the brand. That’s a lot of responsibility.
Travis: It is, it is. You know, and, and you know, you’re kind of speaking to something even more fundamental, which is like our why, right?
Mm-hmm. So, 2015, I’m burned out. You know, I’ve been doing the same thing. It just in repetition for almost 10 year, more than 10 years kind of feeling like, wow, is this all there is? I remember at one point I was like, should I just quit and go be a high school football coach? You know, at the time I was serving as a volunteer youth pastor and I really love working with young people and just speaking life into people and but I saw a TED Talk by Simon Sinek called, start With Why.
And you know, a lot of, a lot of folks that are listening to this or watching this you know, will probably have seen that. And I read the book too, which is completely unnecessary. It’s like 300 pages and you can get the whole thing in 10 minute Ted Talk. But it really just forced me to say, why in the world do I wake up every day and come and sit in front of this computer all day?
And so for a year and a half I asked myself, why do I do this? And I didn’t have like a fundamentally clear answer immediately. It just took a really long time. And the conclusion I came to was, man, if I had a hundred million dollars, if I was gonna die in a year, I would still be working. Because I just, that’s just, I have to be useful, you know?
And I was like, if I’m gonna be working, it’s gonna be something big and amazing because like why? Why else not go big or go home, you know?
Paige: Right. And if
Travis: I’m gonna do something big and amazing, I’m gonna need help. I can’t do it by myself because all big things happen with people, with a group of people or with a people in collaboration.
But then I realized, well, it’s not gonna be for us ’cause that’s selfish. It’s gonna be for other people. So that means. Not only do I wanna work with great people, I wanna work for great people. And so, uh, but then I was like, okay, well why do people do work? If, if, and to me, if it started to come down, it’s like, it’s gotta be meaningful.
It’s gotta, it’s gotta make a difference. And so that was my why. So it was to work with great people, for great people to do meaningful work that makes a difference. And when I came to that four kind of points, it was like someone rang a bell and I was like, I wanna make that statement more true every day.
Been the day before for the rest of my life. And so I know that’s a really long-winded answer to your question about brand shepherding brands, but like, I think it’s incredibly important because like when you’re coming from a why, it’s like you can weather any, what if you know what your why is? Or was it, was it, I forgot.
Nietzche says like, basically like, you know, it doesn’t matter necessarily the the what or the how, but like what is your why, you know? Mm-hmm. And so, long story short you know, when we’re shepherding brands, we’re coming from a place of, of. Wanting to do meaningful work that makes a difference for great people.
And so when you’re there for that purpose, you’re there for the right reasons and it makes it a lot easier. And then you’re just, your North stars are aligned, your values are aligned, you know you’re heading in the same direction. You know, and, and I think that it also kind of, when you think about it, I mean, there are disciplines and you’re an agency.
I, we’re an agency and you have kind of these core disciplines, right? And so, you know, we are not a brand strategy agency. You know, our core discipline is web design development, but we have. Brand strategy and digital marketing kind of as like sister components to that. Mm-hmm. Um, so when you’re shepherding a brand sometimes, like if that’s not your core competency and they’re coming in with all of their messaging and positioning and targeting and all that stuff, kind of, you know, your job is to help them facilitate that, you know, happening in the digital realm, you know, to get exposure.
Yeah. So over time we came up with a mission statement that would be. To help good people and great ideas receive the exposure they deserve. So I would almost say maybe we’re not necessarily managing or maintaining the brand as much as we’re making sure that it receives the exposure that it deserves, you know?
Mm. And and so, and that’s just an, a privilege and an honor. Right. You know, and, and the neat thing about that is. Even with the advent of ai, it’s almost more important, you know, and it’s not changing, you know, with AI search coming online in GEO or generative engine optimization, or a IO, however you wanna call it.
It’s like a whole new generation of challenges mm-hmm. For people that are trying to reach people for good. And so, you know, we take that very seriously. We sent our, uh, our senior SEO strategist to one of the world’s first GEO conferences this this year, and she came back with 30 pages of notes, you know Wow.
From all of these different experts and so, you know, yeah. I mean, we’re all in on, you know, on living that, that kind of purpose, that why that mission. You know, for these organizations using our business as a force of good.
Paige: I love that. And as you know, talking a little bit more about the agency world today, it, it’s pretty crowded, you know, there are a lot of firms out there that do, you know, similar work to what you and I do, and it’s often, you know, pretty commoditized.
And so I wanna know, you know, what’s been your most effective strategy for differentiating GLIDE from thousands of other agencies that maybe provide a similar service?
Travis: Yeah, this is an existential question for every agency. The easiest path to differentiation is vertical or horizontal specialization.
You know, so vertical specialization is choosing a particular industry or category. Um, so if you only work with B2B technology, SaaS companies, or you only work with. Not just healthcare, but say like multi-location healthcare clinics, and so, you know, or that’s vertical and then horizontally you could specialize just like you guys do with, you know, your, your core discipline is more pr.
Our, our core discipline is more. Uh, well thought leadership and pr, you know, but, but our, our core discipline is web design and development. So, but by narrowing the band upon which you operate, you know, you can differentiate. So that’s the first order differentiation. And then, you know, the second order differentiation is, is your POV.
Your approach, your proprietary technology, you know, so mm-hmm. Once you decide, you know who you’re going to serve and then what you’re going to offer them, then the next way you differentiate is like, what is your very strong opinion and belief? I’m reading a book by Robin Bond and it is just eating my lunch.
And I really recommend if you are an agency owner or you are a creative in the agency world read Robin’s book. I am like singing his praises. I, I am. You know, don’t tell him this, but I really wanna, I, well, I’ve already talked to him, but I wanna hire him as a, as a personal coach. Mm-hmm. Um, but it’s rekindled and revitalized my beliefs.
Um, he’s got these principles that he goes through and it starts with believing in better. But his whole premise, his whole premise to the book is that there’s not too many agencies. There’s just too little differentiation. It’s, there’s, it’s not oversaturation, it’s under differentiation. Mm-hmm. And so he goes through this whole process of helping you become what he calls a market of one, which is.
Where you’re not competing as a commodity anymore. And so when you get past vertical and horizontal specialization, which is the most common way that you can specialize, it’s also the most challenging and takes the most courage. Because when you vertically specialize, you’re saying no to everything else.
Yes. Which is really challenging. And if you don’t have a marketing engine. If they can get in front of statistically enough of those people in that category, then you’re really gonna be hurting. But that POVI guess one question maybe I’d have back for you, maybe to be thinking about, I don’t wanna put you on the spot page, but like in his book, he calls it the podium test, which is okay, you have to write a speech.
There’s a thousand people in the room, you know, 500 are your agency peers, 500 are your ideal clients. Your job is to start with one sentence, and the sentence starts with. At company. So at GLIDE or you know, at Zilker we believe in blank, blank, blank. And he said The only other caveat to this challenge, this one sentence challenge is.
Ideally you are going to polarize where 50% of the people in the room are gonna be like, hell yeah. 50% of the people in the room are gonna say you’re crazy. And so the idea is to just take a stand for something meaningful and take a stand for something that. Has stakes. And so I’ve been thinking a lot about this, like, God, what, what is our, you know, what is our reason to believe?
What is the thing that we believe in most? And I’ve been going back to, you know, all the philosophies and things like that. So I think that your POV is extremely important as a way to differentiate. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I think that should be clearly stated on your homepage. It should be clearly stated.
Yeah. You know, in, in every call you go into. And then also your approach. You know, I think that you can really differentiate as an agency. So at GLIDE, one of our unique approaches is something we call our signature system. You know, and our signature system is, okay, yeah, we can redesign your website.
But honestly, I, I would say one of the things that I would be able to say in front of a room is you should you should never redesign your website again. I think that would get a lot of people’s attention.
Paige: Oh yeah. Um,
Travis: so like if I stood up in front of a room and said, at GLIDE we think you should never redesign your website again.
And what I mean by that is that you really should be in a process of continuous improvement. Mm-hmm. And, um, and improving your site. And we call it website as a product or wap. The idea is that like when you look at your website as a product, you’re continually evolving and improving it over time.
HubSpot did a survey of, of marketing leaders and found that. 50% or more make one or less changes every year meaningfully to their website. And there’s just so much opportunity on the table, especially in like in the market we’re in, where like, like technology is innovating so quickly. Mm-hmm. And sites are still sitting stagnant, you know?
So anyway, that would, I would say those three. There are other things that I’ve been ranting. So, you know, differentiation, vertically, horizontally, vertically would be by category or industry horizontally would be by service offering services that you offer. And then. Your POV, your approach and then proprietary technology would be in this day and age with ai.
Mm-hmm. That would be the last, and I just, maybe I’ll, I’ll put this list. Last tidbit in like in lovable, like, so there’s this new platform called Level where you can buy code create apps from, from chat. I I don’t know if anyone here is experiencing the new chat. GPT five, I can’t stand it. I think it’s awful.
And so I recreated chat GT’s entire interface in three hours, like the entire thing. The ability to create an account, log in.
Paige: Wow. Have threaded
Travis: conversations, choose models, you know, memories, personalization, projects, you know, uploading files, all those features. But I brought back the old models that it removed.
’cause now it chooses for you.
Paige: Yes. Um,
Travis: and I got done with it and I was sitting here looking at this thing going. Why do I stop here? Why don’t I start creating features that will actually empower my company at GLIDE? Yeah. Specifically for our processes and methodologies, specifically for our clients. And so my mind is just racing at like two in the morning last night.
You know, while I’m like vibe coding like crazy, you know? So I think this is proprietary technology, right? This is where you start to kind of think about like what is not only what is our unique approach, our POV unique approach, but like. Never in the history of time has the average person, by the way, I don’t know how to code at all.
I didn’t write a single line of code, not a one single. Wow. Um, is like anyone can create proprietary technology now.
Paige: Mm-hmm. That’s so wild. And I feel like. You said a lot there. That was so key. Sorry. It was like, no, no, it’s so good because I, I relate to it so much. You know, even with what we’re looking at, I think this is such a, a quick shifting time in the environment, in, in the space that we’re in.
And you know, we’re, we’re right now working on iterating our website and previously, to be honest with you, Travis, you know, it was a project that we probably did once a year. And now we’re, you know, launching new pages, you know, every other week. And we’re redoing our messaging because our, we wanna shift our positioning because exactly like you said, we’re always working on differentiation because the landscape shifts so quickly and there’s so much with AI in relation to pr as you probably know with discoverability that’s changing.
So it was just really good to hear you say some of that, because it’s reaffirming. Even what we’re, you know, challenged with and, and going through right now as an agency as well.
Travis: Yeah. And I think that I wish I could take credit for this, but I read an article that just really kind of took me by surprise because I wasn’t ready for it.
I mean, I’ve been thinking a lot about AI in our response to AI and how it will change our industry. And in some ways make websites less relevant, which is our core service offering, which in a way is existential. But at the same time, there’s always opportunity or there’s always options. There’s always choices.
And so I don’t look at it as a threat. You know, if you’re 17 and you’re creating a new company, you see everything as opportunity and, and tools because you just don’t have the pressures We’re. The bigger, your agency, WPP is probably like running around. People are running out with their hair on fire, you know?
Mm-hmm. As like these network and holding companies are just so entrenched with such huge amounts of opex, you know, they can’t pivot like small companies, and we’re small, so we have the ability to pivot. Yeah. And you know, so there was a term that I heard that just blew my mind. It’s called ax. So you know, UX is user experience.
User experience is the whole universe of how users experience whatever they experience, whether it’s an app or a website. It includes things like UI and user journeys and all these things. But AX is agentic experience, which is like, I think, like I’ve always thought about this like 10 years ago. I’m like, why wouldn’t you just have someone literally on a live stream on your website.
They could talk to how many people are really visiting the average marketing website, right? Like, could you have like five people just waiting on standby to just talk to someone? Like, wouldn’t that be better than me? Trying to just navigate around a complicated website? And I was like, that’s basically what AI is bringing to the forefront is possibility.
You know? And so like, I think that what you’re going to end up having is these layers to your website experience where you have. All of the meta and the structured data that we already have right now for AI and search, you know, things like that. Mm-hmm. That will help even more for AI and search. And then you have the human experience where people can navigate like they normally do.
But I think the ENT experience is like, just let me give me the information that I want. Right. When I want it. Right, right. Like, why do people go to chat GPT to find an answer? I use it all the time now versus going to Google, you know? Oh yeah. Even with Google’s AI answers, you know, chat, GPT is just, I think I’m more used to it and so.
Why don’t websites do that? So I just think there’s a lot of improvement in room. Like, I would almost wonder like, wouldn’t it be great to talk to you or Rusty or Nicole or any of the team and get that knowledge into an experience that people can have a conversation with versus like a static, like static text on a page.
Are you kidding? Like, this is, we’re in 2025.
Paige: Right?
Travis: You know, like. This isn’t sufficient anymore. And so like, like, it’s funny because I’m very motivated to kind of try crack this nut, but at the same time we have to do the work that we have today. Right?
Paige: That’s right, that’s right. That’s fascinating. And, and thank you so much for sharing all of that.
I, I wanna talk about a distinction for GLIDE, which is, y’all are a certified B corporation, which, you know, isn’t just a label. It, it’s a big commitment. And so I, I. I want you to talk about this for, you know, any CEO or entrepreneur that’s maybe thinking about going this route, you know, how has this shaped the kind of clients that you attract and, and really the way you do business?
Travis: Yeah. I think this was an aspiration for many years. I think that I’ve always operated GLIDE with a lot of the pr, the tenets of B Corp. And then when I found B Corp it was like. When that kid gets the glasses where he can see color now and you know, yeah. It’s like now I can see the world in color or what, you know, as an example.
And so B Corp was just this like structured framework that put a name to a face that was, we were already donating 5% of our, our money. Away every year on average. You know, I was just doing that because it just seemed like the right thing to do. Mm-hmm. You know, and so when B Corp came along and there’s an impact business model that you can choose, that they have predefined as designed to give, which is the name of it, which is you donate 5% of your total gross revenue.
I was like, well, we’ll just get credit for what we’re already doing, you know, like, right. And so I guess in the grand scheme of things, B Corp is interesting, especially in the climate that we’re in, ESG and DEI. And, you know, a lot of the components of culture and workplace life work balance are under attack.
I mean, the mm-hmm. The, the CEO of at t basically came out and said, we don’t care about your loyalty. We don’t care. About friendship, you know, you’re here to work and if you’re not gonna work, you’re gone. You know? And this is one of the largest companies in the world, right? And and it’s just like, we’re just seeing a colder, harder world happening.
And I’m not gonna get political, but it’s just so, you know, with a lot of these things, like it is impossible to extract out from B Corp some of these comp, some of these components, because it is so ENT entrenched into. How you measure. In fact, the new version of B Corp actually has higher standards in a lot of these areas.
And so, you know, it’s been a challenge for us, but I would say if I were to step back from B Corp, you know, to me the thing that it has changed the most is that it has galvanized our entire company around this concept of using business as a force of good. Mm-hmm. And, you know, that is probably the most important point.
I remember when we finally achieved certification, when we hit the. The score requirement. When we got back that confirmation and I shared that with the team, it was such a proud moment for me to share with the team. And I knew that, I knew that when they understood it, that they would see the value in working for a company that cared about those things.
Paige: Yeah.
Travis: And I think it just creates a very lovable company. You know, when you have a group of people that are working at a company that chooses to operate with the standards that B Corp sets, which is insanely high. You know, I think it just, it creates a culture where people are like, you know, they’re proud of where they work.
Paige: Yeah, absolutely. And that, that’s so cool that y’all got to celebrate that moment as a team after working towards that. I wanna talk a little bit about building and scaling. An agency. What do you feel like have been the biggest turning points or challenges in growing GLIDE into the nationally recognized firm?
It is today.
Travis: All right. I’m gonna try to be concise ’cause I tend to around, I would say in 2015, I hired my first project manager. Up until that point, I was doing a little bit of everything. You know, I had a designer, developer. So, you know, getting out of the weeds of managing the business was a huge step for me.
Dan Martell has a book called Buy Back Your Time, and he kind of goes to this latter approach for entrepreneurs where, you know, he, he suggests you get an admin that helps you get out of managing your inbox and your calendar first, and then you exit administration and operations, and then you exit marketing, and then you exit sales and then you exit leadership.
And it’s like this latter approach. And yeah, so I think from a scalability perspective that the number one step, and you know, Michael Gerber talks about this in the E-Myth, you know, where you just create an organizational chart and you put your name in every spot, and then you just look at where, like, where do I suck?
What, what takes away all my energy? Okay, I’m gonna replace myself there first. You know? Mm-hmm. Um, and, you know, uh, Marcus Buckingham wrote a book called, the One Thing You Need to Know. He said the same thing. He’s like, what does it take to achieve lifelong sustained career success? And it’s like, I’ll keep you on the suspense on your toes.
Like, is it, is it find your strengths and capitalize on them? Is it figure out your weaknesses and fix them? No. It’s figure out what you don’t like doing and stop doing it. That’s, that was his conclusion after like years of research. So, so you take Michael Gerber and you take. You know, Marcus Buckingham and then, you know, Gino Wickman comes along with, with EOS.
And so we use EOS and we launched that in 2019 and that was a huge shift for us. And honestly, to be be honest, I always tell people like, if you wanna get in shape, just get a program. Get, like, write something down and stick to it. That us is just one way to run a business. It just happens to be well documented and other people do it.
And so I think that was a huge benefit for us. But I think that it does, has have a cap. I mean, you know, they say it can work up to 200 people, you know, but personally speaking, I think that there are limits, you know, and I think that between that one in $5 million realm is, is a tough place to be. Um, they call it the uncanny valley because as you grow from 1 million to 5 million.
You kind of get to where you need more structure than you can afford. Right? And so you or you, if you get the structure, it’s expensive. And now you’re kind of like almost overdeveloping for where your size is and that, that was us. Um. And I think the other thing too, you know, I’m, I’m a huge fan of Alex Ram Moey.
He talks about, until you get to a million dollars, it’s 1 1, 1 persona, one product, and one channel. That’s it. Mm. You know, and then once you exceed a million dollars, then you can start opening up additional channels. But just, you know, I think that from a scalability perspective, figuring out what the hair on fire problem is and solving that specific problem is the way to grow.
And then lastly, I think that where we’re at right now at GLIDE is, is really kind of to look at our services and saying, how do we productize? You know, so, yeah. I have a theory, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Ogilvy said, study your competitors and do the exact opposite, you know? And I’ve been thinking about that a lot because you just asked about differentiation.
And the problem is when you show up to a client, you look the same, you act the same. Your proposals are the same. It’s like they’re gonna choose based on price. They’re gonna choose based on how quick you can do it. They’re gonna choose based on if you’re three miles closer to their house, you know, like
Paige: mm-hmm.
Travis: So how, how do you differentiate? And if you’re not niched down into a ca, even if you are niched down into a category in service, you know, it’s still Sure. Tough to differentiate. So I was just gonna suggest like productization could be a way that you could differentiate because you can just be like.
Here it is right here. Here’s how much it costs, here’s how long it takes. We’re not gonna come back three weeks from now with a customized proposal. Right. That, you know, that’s mysterious. Like, like crap, put your prices on your website. You know, like, why not? You know, like, so it’s just like in the history of time, no one said, call me for pricing.
They would prefer to call for pricing. You know? Right. And so I was like, you know, there’s a lot of reasons why agencies don’t do that because it’s nuanced and custom and blah, blah blah. But like, but I think that, you know, productization. Is absolutely the path to scalability it. It’s because you know if you can, and, and so if you can, if you can specialize in a category and a service and then productize, like you could brock it to the moon, you know?
Mm-hmm. Um, and I think that’s the other thing about scalability is if, if you do everything for everyone under the sun, you’ll never be able to scale.
Paige: That’s right.
Travis: Maybe not. Never. That’s a limiting belief. It would be very difficult and painful to skill.
Paige: Yes. Yes. Trying to be every thing to everyone.
Absolutely. There are two questions, Travis, that I ask anybody that’s a guest on this series. The first one is, who are you in addition to being a CEO?
Travis: Uh, that’s super easy for me, is I, well, my aspiration is I am a great husband and father.
Paige: Mm-hmm.
Travis: So, you know, for the last seven years or so, I have a morning routine and, you know, exercise devotion, but then, you know, duty is to, to sit down and do a journal.
Um. I’ve been doing this, you know, and I write down three things I’m thankful for. And then five aspirations of like what I would hope that I could achieve as my life goals. And so as a believer, the first is that I would love God and love others. Uh, number two, it’s that I would be the most encouraging person that I can possibly be because I believe that’s why I breathe air is to encourage people.
But after that, it’s, I wanna be a great husband and father. So, you know, my identity is actually more founded in that because at the end of my life, I mean Buffet, I saw a quote by Buffet the other day about this. He’s like, you know, if the people you care about most don’t love you at the end of your life, nothing else matters.
You could have a bunch of buildings named after you. Yeah, you could. You could have $400 billion. But that’s not a successful life, in my opinion. If the people that are closest to you don’t love you at the end of your life. And so for me, my greatest aspiration, you know, my highest calling is to be a great husband and father.
Paige: I love that. That’s beautiful. And the second question I have for you is, what is the impact that you wanna have at the end of every single day?
Travis: Oof. Man, you know, one thing I would say would be I’m a huge fan of, of David Allen’s getting things done. So every day I kind of go through my triggered list and next actions.
And, you know, another, uh, favorite author is, um, Brian Tracy has a book called Eat That Frog. In fact. Oh yes, I have it on the shelf over there somewhere. But anyway, so I would say for me from a work perspective, it would be to eat that frog. Which is like, what is the most important thing that I need to do today?
And did I put it off or did I get it done? You know? Yeah. Um, I have an OBT or one big thing that I write down every day. So when I go through my journal personally you know, after I write down my five aspirations, I write down my seven goals, and then I, at the end, I do an OBT or one big thing. And so I look at my seven goals for the year for myself personally.
Some of them are business wise, and I just say. Hey what goal is lagging? What’s something that I need to do today to move one of these goals forward? And my goal is just to write it down and then just go do it immediately.
Paige: I love that. And eat the frog. It’s so funny, I had a, a fellow EO member that shared with me to put it on your calendar at the beginning of every day to remind yourself, eat the Frog first.
And I, I’ve done that ever since and it’s huge. It’s been a huge life changing thing for me. Well, Travis, you have just shared so much in, you know, 30 minutes. I feel like we could keep recording and keep recording and keep recording and I would love to have you back on at some point. But I just appreciate you so much being willing to share authenticity, your journey, your stories and experiences.
Anybody listening to this is gonna gain so much value. So thank you so much, and I would love for you to share Travis. Um, if anybody wants to get in touch with you or learn more about GLIDE, where can they go?
Travis: Well, thank you so much. And yeah, uh, I would say LinkedIn. I have jumped on the LinkedIn bandwagon.
I’ve been trying to cultivate a healthy. Profile, um, and presence on LinkedIn. So just find me on LinkedIn. Our website is just GLIDE design.com which is LinkedIn. My LinkedIn or you can just search it. And it will likely be found, but it’s been just a privilege. I love everything you guys are doing.
We’ve been such a great partners over all these years, and you’re an inspiration to me.
Paige: Oh, thank you Travis. And thank you all for tuning in and we’ll see y’all next time.