Episode 10
Manage the People, Not the Business (ft. August Media)
Sasha Ulyanov is a serial entrepreneur who is genuinely passionate about building communities for creative people. He is the managing partner of August Media, a Toronto content production agency, and at the time of this episode he was running several creative businesses at once, from Purple Tree Photography to Mint Room Studios and Indigo Visual Co. If anyone knows how to keep a group of creative companies pointed in the same direction, it is Sasha.
In this early episode of Creatives Grab Coffee, Sasha joins Dario and Kyrill to talk about how to manage and scale a business, or in his case several at once. They get into his counterintuitive core rule, that you manage the people rather than the business itself, how he hires by learning what each person actually wants, why delegation is the engine of quality and efficiency, and how putting the client experience first builds the kind of trust that keeps clients coming back.
Key Takeaways
- Manage people, not the business. Sasha’s core rule for running several companies at once is that you cannot micromanage the entity, you lead the people inside it and give them room to hit the goals.
- Give people opportunities and guidance. Growth comes from handing your team real responsibility and the support to grow into it, not from trying to do everything yourself.
- Hire for goals and ambitions. Sasha learns what a prospective team member actually wants from their career, so he can see how they will fit and grow with the company over the long term.
- Delegate to the right people. Once you have the team, dividing responsibilities and matching them to the right people is what keeps quality high and the work efficient.
- Make it easy for the client. Every project starts with figuring out how to make the process as convenient and simple as possible for the client.
- Transparency builds trust. Open, constant communication with clients is how Sasha earns the trust that turns one project into a lasting relationship.
Managing Multiple Creative Businesses
It is hard enough to manage one creative company, and Sasha is among the rare entrepreneurs actively running several at once. His answer to how you keep consistency across all of them is refreshingly simple: you do not really manage the business, you manage the people who work within it. Give them the opportunities and the guidance to reach the goals, and the companies more or less run themselves. It is the same instinct behind managing a growing business without burning out, and behind empowering your team and elevating morale so people want to do their best work.
Hiring and Delegation
Finding the right people is hard for any business, and Sasha’s approach is to start with what each candidate actually wants. By learning a person’s goals and ambitions, he can picture how they will integrate with the rest of the team and grow with the company over the long term. Once the team is in place, the job becomes dividing up responsibilities and delegating them to the right people, which is what lets the work get done to a high standard and with real efficiency. That is the heart of growing and investing in your team and of learning how to solve problems and build teams that can carry the load.
It Is All About the Client
For all the talk of teams and structure, Sasha keeps coming back to the client. On every project, his first question is how to make the process as convenient and simple as possible for them, which means understanding their needs before planning any of the creative. Transparency does the rest: open, constant communication builds the trust that turns a single job into a lasting relationship. That is really the whole point of running a smooth, well-managed production process, and it is why clients pay so much attention to what to look for when choosing a production company and to the overall client experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Sasha Ulyanov?
Sasha Ulyanov is a Toronto serial entrepreneur and the managing partner of August Media. He is passionate about building communities for creative people and has run several creative businesses, including Purple Tree Photography, Mint Room Studios, and Indigo Visual Co.
What is August Media?
August Media is a boutique Toronto content production agency with an in-house team of photographers, videographers, and creative directors, producing photo and video content for medium to large brands. Site: augustmedia.ca.
How do you manage several businesses at once?
Sasha’s rule is to manage the people, not the business: give your team the opportunities and guidance to reach the goals rather than trying to control every part of the company yourself.
How does Sasha hire?
He focuses on learning a prospective team member’s goals and ambitions, so he can see how they will integrate with the team and grow with the company long term, then delegates responsibilities to the right people.
How do you keep clients happy?
By making the process as convenient and simple as possible, understanding the client’s needs before planning the creative, and building trust through open, constant, transparent communication.
The Hosts
Dario Nouri and Kyrill Lazarov are the co-founders of Lapse Productions, a Toronto video production company, and the hosts of Creatives Grab Coffee, a weekly show about the business of video production.
About
Creatives Grab Coffee is a podcast about the business behind video production: sales, strategy, pricing, team building, and everything that happens off camera. New episodes every week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Lapse Productions is a Toronto-based video production company serving tech, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing clients with corporate, promotional, event, and testimonial video. New to commissioning video? Start with our guide to the types of corporate video.
August Media is a boutique Toronto content production agency with an in-house team of photographers, cinematographers, creative directors, and marketers. Led in part by managing partner Sasha Ulyanov, the studio produces photo and video content for medium to large brands. Learn more at augustmedia.ca.
