Pod Insights Growth Think Tank Scaling through Culture with John Williams at JCW Creative About this episode In this episode, I sit down with John Williams, CEO of JCW Creative, to explore the concept of scaling through culture and its impact on business growth. Under John's leadership, JCW Creative has experienced remarkable success, earning a spot at No. 3,258 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list. We discuss how scaling through culture helps businesses build strong, aligned teams that drive performance and innovation. John shares key insights and actionable strategies that leaders can implement to foster a culture that fuels sustainable growth. Tune in to discover how scaling through culture can be the foundation for long-term success in your organization.
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1:02 Speaker 02 It's about engagement. It's about engagement with our people. So we try to be very structured in our day-to-day routine as a company. We are pretty much modeled and built on the EOS structure. So we all have our weekly team meetings and our company-wide team meeting each month. And we all have weekly or bi-weekly or monthly check-ins. I have a check-in with every team member throughout each month to make sure that we're all on the same page and we're all driving together. So for us, there's a lot of deliberateness in our structure, in our check-ins, in our weekly meetings. Of course, then it's about the day-to-day actions and it's about how we treat people and how we work with people
1:48 Speaker 02 in those ways every day.
1:51 Speaker 03 Welcome to Grow Think Tank. This is the one and only place where you will get insight from the founders and the CEOs of the fastest growing privately held companies. I am the host. My name is Gene Hemmott. I help leaders and their teams navigate the defining moments of their growth. Are you ready to grow? Today, we're going to talk about scaling through culture. Your people are probably more important than you think they are. And the culture that you define, and the culture that you create, the culture that you lead through, that you're inviting people in with you, is one of the most important forces inside your business. Today's special guest is John Williams. He is the CEO of JCW Creative. They do a lot of different marketing creative
2:34 Speaker 03 projects for clients. They focus on B2B and really enjoy talking to John about culture, and really what it takes to create an incredible culture that where people have a sense of loyalty, a sense of growth, a sense of doing the right things. And we talked about, you know, the feeling when culture is right. You'll see it in his eyes if you're watching the video, but I saw him just light up talking about when you have culture right, what happens? And he gives a little bit of stories and a lot of detail around some of the details and the tactical elements of culture. So make sure you lean in today to John Williams. My name is Gene Hemmott. I'm an executive coach, really focused on CEO coaching, fast growth companies. I have worked with more fast growth companies than any other leadership
3:18 Speaker 03 development company in America. And I'm really excited to talk to you about leadership and culture. And if you are growing a fast growth company, I know you have chaos, you're probably pulled in many directions, you probably don't even know how and where to use your time wisely, what's getting in the way. Well, I've got a special offer for you. I've got a chance to sit down with you and me, I've been doing this for more than a decade, to really see what your blind spots are, see what your strategy is, and really help you strengthen that. And I say that because it maybe is a little, little technique that we can use to shift it, or maybe look at a different perspective of it. Maybe it's even just understanding the blind spots. I've been doing this for years.
4:00 Speaker 03 I'd love to sit down with you. If you're curious about the work that I do, you don't have to hire me as a coach. You can actually just sign up and let's have a conversation and it will be like you're my best client. Just send me an email, [email protected] . And if you're curious about this and you know, is it worth your time? Here's what I'd like to say. I've developed tools of the last 12 years that accelerates fast growth companies to understand where they are, what's missing, and help them identify how to move forward with clarity and confidence. When you know without a doubt about what their next steps are, you will take them, you will align the people around you, and you will move forward. But when you just show up every day and put your head down and do work, you don't have a chance to do that. So send me an email, [email protected] .
4:44 Speaker 03 Let's talk about your business. I promise not to sell you. If you wanted to buy something, you wouldn't be able to buy it that day. We would have to schedule another meeting down the road to go over how we would work together. But so this call would just be about you and me getting clear about what's next for you and your business. Here's the interview with John. Hey, John, how are you?
5:05 Speaker 02 I am wonderful. How are you?
5:06 Speaker 03 Fantastic. I'm looking forward to today's podcast where we're going to talk about scaling through culture. And it really is an important way to grow your business is by hiring the right people and having the right culture. So I'm excited to have you here. Before we dive into that, tell us about your company, JCW Creative.
5:25 Speaker 02 So we create and implement marketing and creative solutions for clients. We've had the fortunate ability to grow over the last 13 years from just a few clients to, you know, 60, 70 clients across the United States. And we provide them with partnerships where we understand their needs and deliver on their goals.
5:46 Speaker 03 Marketing is one of the hardest industries. I say this over and over. Maybe you don't feel like it's so hard because it's just where you are, but it changes faster than even technology. I think technology changes at a rapid pace. Sales doesn't change a whole lot. Leadership pretty stable for the most part. It is, it is shifting a little bit, but marketing, what used to work doesn't work anymore. Tell us about how you guys keep up with the new marketing initiatives and trends.
6:13 Speaker 02 Yeah, so I think you're correct 100% marketing hasn't changed, but the core principles of, you know, being purpose driven, being values based, delivering on that, um, that guarantee or providing solutions um to whatever industry or clientele or demographic you serve, that hasn't changed. And so if, if, if we're marketing correctly, we're extracting all of that and we're telling that story. We like to tell our clients, we don't, we don't create your story, we tell your story. It's your job to create your brand and live your brand and live your values and your culture day in and day out. And if we're marketing you correctly, then we're going to bring that to life. And what's great is that people
6:56 Speaker 02 like to be captivated with content and with stories. And so if we're creating those stories and we're telling um that, that, that story and we're connecting that content with the right demographic and the right audience and the right sociographic, then, then the success is going to come because the customer provides a solution and delivers on a result and we've connected them.
7:18 Speaker 03 Well, it's a good transition because I'm going to let you tell your story through the lens of leadership and in specifically, we're going to talk about scaling uh with culture. When you think about scaling through culture in your business, was this an initial thought when you were, you know, just yourself and an idea and maybe you hired a couple of friends and whatnot? Or was it something that developed over time?
7:39 Speaker 02 Um, yes and no. Um, you know, for me, it was all about caring. Um, it was all about caring for the client, understanding their need, listening to them and their problem and trying to care enough to deliver a solution. Um, and so, you know, being a service-based business, we don't make the same product or widget. Again and again, we have to understand people, we have to understand their pain at that time, we have to provide them solutions. So we really built that in, I built that into the core of the DNA of the company and how we act and operate. Um, how we treat our own team has definitely been um trial and error and learn and improve and grow. Um, unfortunately, I have made mistakes over the years where there are people who are no longer on our team.
8:23 Speaker 02 If I was a better leader for them than and I had a better culture in this in this environment, then we would have been better and they probably would still be here. So I've I've learned, I've grown and we've evolved and grown our culture. But it was very clear to us throughout the 12 years that we have to have a good culture to grow and to to be who we really can be, the best we can be.
8:46 Speaker 03 Culture is an incredible force inside the business. When it's bad, everyone knows that it's, you know, performance is is lagging, stress is high, people getting on each other's nerves, a lot of blame. But getting culture right is an easy thing. Do you guys measure culture? Do you do surveys? Is there anything specifically you do to to tell you where you're how you're doing?
9:08 Speaker 02 So for me, again, just like on the marketing side, it's about engagement. It's about engagement with our people. So we try to be very structured in our day to day routine as a company. We are pretty much modeled and built on the EOS structure. So we all have our weekly team meetings and our company wide team meeting each month. Then we all have weekly or bi weekly or monthly check ins. I have a check in with every team member throughout each month to make sure that we're all on the same page and we're all driving together. So for us, there's a lot of deliberateness in our structure, in our check ins and our weekly meetings.
9:51 Speaker 02 Of course, then it's about the day to day actions and it's about how we treat people and how we work with people, you know, in the in those ways every day.
10:00 Speaker 03 I want to make sure I heard you correctly. Monthly team member meetings, is this just with your direct reports? Is it just with like people that are doing the important work? Or is it literally everyone? Because I think you have 35 employees.
10:12 Speaker 02 Thirty five employees, you're correct. So I'm do a I do a quarterly check in with all team members. Thank you for clarifying that. Then your directors do monthly check ins with their team members, all all team members under them. And then our team leads do weekly check ins with their direct reports.
10:33 Speaker 03 Okay. It makes more sense, but I, you know, I do hear a lot of companies that they hate meetings. And so they feel like these are wasted time. What would you say to leaders about, oh, that just seems like there's too much structure and rigor for you guys that are wasting time on meetings?
10:48 Speaker 02 Yeah. So when it comes to check-ins, you're either going to have them by force in a most likely non proactive way, a very reactive way, because you're getting forced to because somebody's unhappy. Um, or you're going to have check-ins proactively. I am the type of leader where I have learned I would rather be proactive than reactive. So for us, it's about making space for team members, providing them with space to talk about what is going well, what is not going well, and where they are on their growth plan. That's what it's about. And if we're not making that space and helping those people through the things that they need help with, and congratulating them and giving them gratitude for the things that they're doing well,
11:30 Speaker 02 and making sure that they're on the right train tracks, then human nature, they're going to drift off the wrong, the train tracks, and then we're going to be having a forced reactive check-in from, from now. So for me, it's about the proactive structure, and I'm not forcing anybody to spend a certain amount of time. Sometimes people's check-ins are 45 minutes, sometimes they're 10, but it's about creating that space.
11:53 Speaker 03 John's been talking about the check-in. Let's, let's make sure that we're on the same page here. I believe that every direct report should speak to their direct leader once a week, at the very least, twice a week. And it could be a 15 minute meeting, it could be 30 minutes, but you want to give them space to share their thoughts. Here's the way I would structure it. I've, I've built this out with a few clients. They said it works really well for them, so I'm going to share it with you. This is kind of very fresh, but one, in, uh, in that framework, that first piece is personal. Take the first three, five minutes. Don't jump into work right away. Ask them what's going on in their life. Hopefully you know what their spouse is up to, their spouse's name, if they have kids, what their kids are doing,
12:37 Speaker 03 and you can check in with them to see what, what's going on at a personal level. Maybe they're going to tell you about an aging. A parent, or maybe they're going to tell you about something they're unsure of. Let that stuff happen because that builds trust, that builds connection. The personal element is often scratched out and I want to encourage you not to scratch that off. Put that into first in the framework. So that's the first three to five minutes. And then you want to have the second part of the framework is how are they winning at work? Let them share with you what's working, how they're making and adding value. And that really is important for people because they feel heard. They, they, they don't have a chance to, to express it very much. Give them the chance to bring how they're winning at work. And then next, the third piece is about their challenges. What are their challenges?
13:21 Speaker 03 How, how can they, how can you support them? Really lean into this, ask questions, be curious. You may not need to solve their problem. Maybe they just need to tell you that they're working through something and they want to tell you that it's difficult. They want to tell you that they're willing to, to come up with it. If you feel like you need to review that plan with them or whatever, then set up another conversation to do that. You know, 24 hours, 48 hours, next week, whatever it may be, give them a chance to do that. Now, some things that you can add, maybe not every time, but one of them is, you know, every quarter or so, check in with how their growth plan is going. If they're trying to build a skill in copywriting or sales or financial management, ask them about these things. What are they doing? What are the books they're reading?
14:04 Speaker 03 And just appreciate what they're doing and how they're doing it. And then finally, you may not think you have time for this, but every once in a while, I want you to ask the question, how am I doing as your leader? Where can I improve? What is something I don't, I'm not aware of? Anything related to your leadership and that relationship. If you put all that into your framework, you will get a lot out of these conversations and you will see that they're not a waste of time and it will build a stronger culture and you will tune into things proactively that you were missing by just reading an email. That's my take on a check in. Hopefully you like that framework. Thanks. Back to John. I remember one of my clients took over a new department, finance. It was a COO and he was like, this, this bookkeeper needed an hour with me every week.
14:47 Speaker 03 And I, I just didn't know what we would talk about for an hour. But she wanted to talk about the things that they were doing. Some of the things she saw and it really made her feel appreciated and he as he took over this new team. It wasn't it wasn't the normal way of doing it, but that you know, some people got 10 minutes and she got an hour. She used it and he goes, I've never had an issue with her. And you know, I know we have all kinds of problems, but I would tell team members similar. You can either do it because you need it or you can do it proactively and it's much easier to do things proactively, I think.
15:20 Speaker 02 There was a Gallup poll a couple of years ago that stuck out to me. The four things that people want from leaders the most compassion, trust, stability and hope. Right. And so I am providing all of those things in a routine check in. I am providing all those things in a weekly meeting. I am providing all those things in a monthly team meeting. I am providing those things as a CEO to my whole team in their quarterly checking. It's built in our DNA and it's how we show up every day and so it's a part of the structure.
15:54 Speaker 03 We get here because you're talking about scaling through culture. When you have culture right, what does it feel like running your company?
16:01 Speaker 02 When culture is right, it's like a high there every you can feel the buzz. You can feel the energy, right? You can't touch it. You can't define it. You can't write it out, but you can feel it. Our clients come into the into the office and they and they write me letters after or send me a text and say that I could feel the energy. I could feel the vibe today in your office. So it shows up through that. It shows up through the care and the compassion. It shows up through the success, the results. You it seems like when the culture is right, we're getting crazed daily by clients. And team members are shouting people out for doing great work. That's what great culture looks like and you can just feel it.
16:45 Speaker 02 And it's for me, it's it's fourth dimensional. You it's it's it's something that can be explained.
16:52 Speaker 03 I had an interview a long time ago. I can't remember who it was, but they said, I can see it in their eyes. Whether they're engaged around their work, whether they like being here. I can see a deadness too. And he goes, that's a signal. I need to have a conversation with someone.
17:05 Speaker 03 A lot of people.
17:06 Speaker 02 We had a team lead day the other, last week to just, we have these team days sort of by department every six months. And then a full team retreat in the, the summer where we take the whole team offsite for a few days. And then a purpose day at the beginning of the year with the whole team together. But I reminded our team leads last week, you don't have to wait for a scheduled check in to check in. You know, a check in can be two minutes at the beginning of the day, the end of the day. You, some people have bad weeks and that's human nature. And so how can you help somebody in a bad week? That, and, and just make it a little bit better.
17:46 Speaker 03 I love that ad you had in there. A lot of people think the understanding culture is about, you know, the, the pool tables, the ping pongs, the, the bing bag chairs. And, and all of these kind of sort of nice to haves. I think they're completely wrong if they think that that's culture. Culture is about how people feel about the work, the people around them, how they feel about their growth. What would you add to, what is culture?
18:12 Speaker 02 Let's see. Culture is, is like when your team delivers to your client like you would have. That to me is like, it's the DNA has run all the way through to where the, the, the bottom of the org chart is delivering for our client, just like I would have. And getting that email or that text message or that phone call from a client. I got a phone call from a client at four o'clock on, on Friday, when I was at my son's school at a Mardi Gras parade from a client just saying, thank you. The meeting this morning that we had with your team was amazing. I wasn't there, but they loved our team. They love our vibe. They love everything we do for them and how we deliver.
18:56 Speaker 02 And it was just to say thank you. And I was answering because I thought it was an emergency, but it was just to say thank you. And so I got to hang up and go back to my son's parade. Knowing that my team has impacted our clients and our output and the, the value that we bring them in the same way that I would have.
19:13 Speaker 03 I love this conversation on scaling through culture. Sometimes culture goes awry. Many times it's a toxic employee. Sometimes it's a leadership issue that hasn't been proactive. Have you ever had to do a turnaround in culture?
19:28 Speaker 02 Absolutely, absolutely.
19:30 Speaker 03 Can you guide us through kind of what was going on and kind of what you did?
19:33 Speaker 02 Yeah, so it was at our last growth cycle. And in the 13 years of the business, we've kind of had three growth cycles to level us up. So we're at, you know, four or five million in revenue right now this year. And, you know, 35 team members. And so, you know, we've had our different, our different chapters. And this most recent chapter, we physically moved our space from one building where we had been for the first 10 years, if you will. And, you know, gotten up to 19 people in 2,000 square feet. So it was a very close, tight knit, you know, team. And then how are we going to transfer that to a three times the space?
20:18 Speaker 02 A going from a very IKEA, you know, sort of bootstrap startup vibe to a more, you know, elevated look and feel because, you know, we've, we've been, we've been alive now for 10 years and we're, we're bigger and we're trying to level up who we are. And so we got to that spot and you just learn that, hey, just because everyone was on that, on that boat with you at the last chapter, maybe not everyone is ready for the next chapter, right? Maybe some people say that they are, but emotionally or where they are in their life, they're not really ready for it. And so being a change manager through that transition,
21:01 Speaker 02 I thought it was just a physical transition from one space to the next, but it was so much more. It was a cultural level up transition. It was a, it was a raise the bar transition. And we found in that first year of moving from that building to this building, that not everyone on our team wanted to actually be a part. Of who we were a year later in this new facility and in this new in this new way of thinking that we had elevated ourselves to. And so we had to, as a leader, I had to learn that it's, you know, that's okay, first of all. And let's help people either get back on the tracks or get off the tracks.
21:42 Speaker 02 And, you know, for years I took the management of people and the hiring of fire and firing of people very seriously and very personally and rightfully so. It's about people's livelihood and tenure as a part of the team. But over these last many years, I've learned that it's it's not my decision. If I'm properly communicating the purpose and the mission and the values of how we operate. And our team knows those values and they know the that purpose. And if you're on the tracks and you're doing it, you're making the right decisions to align with the team. But but the moment you start stepping off the tracks, you're making that decision. It's my job to help get you back on the tracks. But if you keep making the decision to keep veering further and further away from the tracks,
22:28 Speaker 02 then you're making the decision to no longer be a part of this team. And that's not my decision, that's your decision, and I'll help you along the way in that decision. So I've had to, I've had to understand that mentality that I can help guide people and I can help guide people on or off.
22:44 Speaker 03 John's been talking about a cultural level up. And one of the concepts that comes up quite often in my coaching, also in entrepreneurial circles, is the John, the Marshall Goldsmith book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There. And what we put the spin on this is the people that got you here may not get you there. What it means is when you started out and you have five employees, you will hire people that that have a certain level of skills and maybe they they continue to grow. But once you get to a hundred employees or two hundred employees or five hundred employees, eventually they're going to be out of sorts. They're not going to grow as fast as the company's growing if you're really growing the way a lot of my clients are. And so you want to make sure that you don't, you know, you understand this concept of the people that got you here
23:28 Speaker 03 may not be the people that get you to the next level. You can read the book by Marshall Goldsmith. But it's not from the same perspective. But I just share this with you because it has helped a lot of people wrestle through, you know, having to let go of people that they love or that they feel like there's part of their family and their culture. But they're no longer able to handle the job because the job has changed. And they don't want to let it go. And it does cause a lot of tension. And I just put this out there because I know what it feels like to be driving chaos and driving fast growth. And not everybody's ready for that challenge. Back to John. I love the way you've described this because I, as an executive coach, sit down with a lot of people. I've never in 12 plus years ever said you should fire someone.
24:11 Speaker 03 So if anybody's listening to this who thinks they got fired because of my advice, I will ask the hard questions. I will ask why you keep giving them so many chances. I will ask them about how did you contribute to this? But what I wanted to bring out for you is, is not everyone wants to be a part of the journey. And our job is to coach them up or coach them out is the word, the frame I use. And I wrote a book. There's a neon sign behind me, but I'm holding it up. How to Have Tough Conversations. If you had a tough conversation with someone about their attitude or their performance, and they don't lean in, it's on them to me. Yep. You can have another one because I've got a structure in here for literally four different types of conversations that you may, you know, you'll face in the journey of letting someone go.
24:55 Speaker 03 It should never be a surprise, in my opinion. I know that's a long question in there, but I just, I wanted to highlight the fact that you are doing something really smart. Also, and this was just glossed over. I feel like you have a similar concept I've had. And I think I pulled it from a, from a previous podcast guest. Is they don't look at employees as we're done with you and it's over. Now, if they've done something egregious, but they looked at their employees as they're like alumni. Would you say that you have a same type of approach to the culture? And what kind of impact does that have overall to the culture? When you're not, you know, talking bad about someone behind their back, you're literally going, oh, it's just time for them to go to the next thing. Do you treat them like alumni or do you see it differently?
25:37 Speaker 02 Um, I can tell you that over the last year or two, that has been my mindset is they are now alumni. Um, I, there have been, I still have great relationships with people that have left recently. Again, I have learned and so that not always been the case. And I have definitely made my mistakes. And again, they're definitely great people that are no longer here that I wish I, I still had a relationship with. And I wish we're still be, we, we're still here. Um, because again, I've, I've definitely had to learn through it. But in the recent, that is absolutely our mentality. You are, you are graduating, you are moving on. Um, our three values are care for others, execute our plans and pursue constant growth.
26:19 Speaker 02 And sometimes pursuing constant growth here means moving on and means moving to a different challenge. Um, in your career, we've had clients leave here and go straight to work for, I mean, I'm sorry, not clients. We've had team members leave here and go straight to work for a client, which we love that as a part of the journey. Because we're continuing to help both parties, our client and our, our team member in their journey. Um, and that's what we want it to be. It's, it's, there shouldn't be animosity in that, in that relationship.
26:49 Speaker 03 One last question, just to put the punctuation on this. What impact does that have to the culture when they see that happening to their friends, to their peers?
26:58 Speaker 02 I, I think it's huge. I think that like, I mean, we had a team member leave a couple of months ago. He had found another opportunity and he told our team, when he was telling our team that he was leaving. He said, y'all are all the most beautiful souls I've ever met and I've never been a part of such an amazing team. Right? And so he was growing in his career and he's moving to another city and moving on to his job. But that was his leaving remarks for us. And so we have taught him, we have had an impact on him. He is growing and moving on. Um, we're excited for him for that. Our team's crying and so that's what we love. We try to give people a parting gift and, and thank them for their time and stay in touch as they move forward.
27:40 Speaker 02 But you know, nothing lasts forever and, and, and it's all a part of the journey.
27:45 Speaker 03 John, thanks for being here, sharing your journey, your story of JCW Creative, talking about scaling through culture. I really appreciate it.
27:54 Speaker 02 It was a pleasure.
27:55 Speaker 03 Wow, what a great interview. I love the tactical elements that John talked about around culture. Culture is such an important force. Scaling through culture is really the only way to really scale your business beyond just you because you can't make all the decisions, you can't do all the work, even though you might be incredible in marketing, or sales, or spreadsheets, or financial, or structure, whatever it may be. You have to surround yourself with the right people and you want to make sure you have the right culture. So hopefully you enjoyed me with scaling through culture. If I can help you in any way through the leadership development of managers to leaders or CEO development, make sure you send me an email, [email protected] . And as always, when you think about growth, when you think about leadership, think about growth and content. As always, with courage, we'll see you soon.
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Previous Scaling with the Right People with John McKenna at Peachtree VA Next Scaling Leadership with Anders Jones at Facet Page updated November 7, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
