A client recently told me that the thing that makes The Lost Executive team stand out from the crowd is that we hustle like nobody else.
As far as an identifying quality to be known by goes, this has to be one of the better ones. As one of the co-founders of The Lost Executive LTD, I have the pleasure of working with an amazing team that we grew from the ground up. There isn’t a huge number of us, but everyone in the team works hard and more importantly, works smart to make things happen for our clients. And yes, we really do hustle.
LAYING ROADS
Our clients rely on us to create engaging and shareable content every month, or week, and to market it. We take the time to work smart to create the best ‘marketing roads’. By this I mean that we connect with hundreds of media professionals and influencers across various topics and negotiate working relationships with them. By doing so, we ensure that we know where our clients’ articles and the associate press releases will end up. No article is ever truly about one topic and we know how to get the most out of ours. This takes work, however.
Contacting bloggers and magazines, speaking with radio and vlog editors, hounding representatives of networks and publishing houses to make sure that our client is seen by as many appropriate people and interested audiences is difficult. We act as agents and have to pitch ideas to every single outlet and get them on board, not only to cover a piece but to give it the appropriate representation as well.
Each article has to interest and engage the reader not only to convey the correct tone and voice for the client but also to leave a lasting and memorable impression. It needs to be worthy enough to be shared for interest’s sake as well as being used as reference material in the future. We aim to create articles that a reader will use to prove their point.
Words are key, and our process is highly efficient. The client is interviewed, a draft is written, rewritten and Flesch-Kincaid Tested to make sure it reads well online, via desktop, iPad and mobile. It is independently proofed and edited and then we send it to the client for confirmation. And it goes through the process again and again until the client is completely happy with it.
HIGHLIGHTING DANGEROUS TURNS
We also hustle to protect our clients. An example is how fast we worked to be completely GDPR compliant. We’ve had to pivot to ensure that what we do is going to keep our clients compliant with rules and regulations that they themselves may not fully understand. This required us to learn a lot in a short amount of time and to action things immediately instead of leaving it to the last minute. This felt a lot like laying paving stones by hand, through a thicket of thorns but our clients were worth it.
Hustling is not always about working hard; it’s also about being clever. We make use of all the latest technology and programming that we can to make our work as efficient as possible. We are only a handful of people at the moment, but we’re laying down the roads that a much larger team will use in the future.
OPENING DOORS
Our partners also appreciate our hard work. We provide them with paid work and exposure with new media. We open doors to some of the most important ‘voices’ of industry. It means a great deal to us that we’re able to provide opportunities for writers, bloggers and freelancers to work with giants of industry. That our reputation with them is one of giving before taking, is a point of personal pride.
IMPROVISATION
Finally, we improvise. As a small team, we pivot well and create new services to suit the needs of our clients. That a client is looking for social media growth is a given. But what if a client wants us to put on a series of events for them to promote the launch of a new product? Needing us to write speeches and fill the event with media professionals? Of course we can and we will work like mad behind the scenes to make it happen. Every time we do something new for our clients we create new pathways and experiences.
Every new road we lay down is an easier route to use in the future. The hustle doesn’t end just because we’ve made something easier though. We endeavour to keep that freelance, entrepreneurial, opportunistic, jump-in, arms-in-shoulders-deep attitude alive.
Everyone has had the unfortunate experience of feeling that not enough has been done. Nobody likes to feel that they’re getting the bare minimum of what they paid for. Unfortunately many agencies lay down roads and think they can travel them at their leisure. Today, more people want a leisurely lifestyle, leading to a“that’ll do” attitude becoming the norm. We don’t take this attitude. We work smart for our clients and then we sweat hard for them.
For now, we’re a small team with a reputation for inspired work and hard earned results. In the future we’ll be a big team with the same rep. At the end of the day it all comes to the same thing; you either hustle for your clients or someone else will.
